How A Subpoena May Help You During Your Divorce

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A subpoena is a court order to produce documents or appear in court as part of a legal process. If you are going through a divorce, there are several ways you can use a subpoena to help with the divorce process. Here are some of the things a subpoena may help with during a divorce.

Financial Information

For a fair divorce settlement to be realized, each spouse is supposed to reveal their financial information. The financial and asset ownership information is used to determine marital division, child custody, and spousal support issues. Therefore, you can use a subpoena to get more information from your spouse if you suspect that:

• They are underreporting their income
• They have hidden sources of income
• They have secret bank accounts
• They are underreporting the value of their assets

Remember that you have to be specific about what you want the other party to produce when issuing a subpoena. For example, you should specify whether you want them to produce their tax returns, pay stubs or business ownership records.

Third Party Witnesses

You can also use a subpoena to compel third parties to testify in your divorce trial. In this case, you have to prove to the court that the third party has material information that you can't get in any other way. Here are a few examples of how such a subpoena may help:

• Compelling a nanny to testify about child-related issues such as the identity of the parent who usually takes care of the kids when the kids are sick
• Compelling a neighbor to testify about domestic violence if you are sure the neighbor has such information
• Compelling your spouse's business partners to reveal business records such as ownership percentages and profits

Third Party Records

Lastly, you may also use a subpoena to compel other parties to produce records that may help your divorce process. Again, don't forget that the judge will want to know how the information may be relevant to your case; subpoenas aren't used for fishing expeditions. For example, you can use such a subpoena to:

• Compel a phone company to produce phone call or SMS records to prove that your spouse is cheating on you
• Compel an employer to produce salary records to prove that your spouse has underreported their income
• Compel a bank to produce account details to prove that your spouse has a secret account with the bank

The court may issue a subpoena on its own, or your lawyer may request one. This means you don't have to worry about getting the information you need for your divorce if you have retained a lawyer. For more information, contact a law office like The VK Law Firm.

19 March 2018