You represent an individual or a company in a breach of contract action. Your client is convinced that a non-party to that litigation possesses certain documents that, once produced, will result in a generous and speedy settlement offer from her adversary. “How can we get the non-party to give us the documents?” she asks. “That’s easy,” you explain. “We’ll serve him with a subpoena duces tecum.” Having consulted CPLR Article 23, you do just that. Much to your amazement, the subpoenaed party fails to respond to the subpoena in any way whatsoever. You send a letter demanding that the subpoenaed party either produce the documents “forthwith” or let you know how soon you can expect the documents. Again, you receive no response. “I thought you said this would be easy?” your client complains. “What do we do now, Mr. Lawyer?” “I know just the thing,” you tell her. “I will move to have him jailed for contempt of court.” “Really? That’s terrific. That will teach him a lesson for sure!” says your once-again satisfied client.

As you begin drafting papers seeking to have the subpoena recipient held in contempt, you are brought up short by the observation of one of your colleagues that, while the procedure for obtaining an order holding a non-party subpoena recipient in contempt for failure to produce documents is relatively easy, experienced practitioners know that it is very difficult to obtain such an order in practice.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]