Legal Question in Family Law in California

Hi, I have some questions regarding a civil subpoena. My husband received a civil subpoena yesterday & he can't go the hearing. We live 200 miles away & that�s 400 miles total. We are having a lot of financial difficulty right now. The reason for the subpoena is because we haven�t been on time with child support payments and they want him to seek work. He does cleaning for clients once a week & has a really hard time finding a job. We have a 2 year old he babysits while I work full time. He couldn�t do it otherwise. He has 2 felonies and no high school diploma, and has applied almost everywhere in town possible. I could pay his support payment in full every month but have not made it a priority since I didn�t think it would lead to this. No warning was taken place, just got served. If my husband doesn�t show what can happen? I contacted the court & telephone appearance is not available. I spoke to the child support agency and was told if he doesn�t show they will issue another court date & a warning for a warrant. The date they picked is the busy day of work for me and makes it hard to miss. We don�t have the sources to get there. The agency told me to file a Respond notice of motion? But he still has to go? Im going to do that but is there more I can do to get out of the warrant & going over there? Please Help. Thanks


Asked on 3/16/11, 1:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

A subpoena is an order of the court to appear. Not showing up is criminal contempt of court. Period. The only options are to show up, or to hire an attorney to file a motion to move the court date to another date that he can more easily make it. Well, of course, the third option is to just no-show and then be fined and/or jailed.

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Answered on 3/17/11, 12:41 pm


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