Q: If I’m subpoenaed for a deposition as a non-party witness while on disability do they reschedule?
My boyfriend is part of a civil case, I’m scheduled to deliver my baby by csection august 19th. The other parties lawyer is now trying to serve me with deposition papers (assuming anyway, as a process server has been looking for me places I haven’t been) also knowing when my csection date is. If they manage to get me served, do I have a window of opportunity to be able to recover from my surgery? I will be off on disability for 8 weeks for my csection - how much time do they typically allow for things like that? The other parties lawyer is not really forgiving of things and still trying to track me down even though I’m 2 weeks away from delivery. The case is set to trial at the end of September if COVID doesn’t push it back.
A:
Will they reschedule? You say the other attorney is being a Jerk (comes with the territory you know) so who can say? SHOULD they reschedule? Yes, they should. Must they reschedule? If you properly ask the Judge, yes. No judge is going to make a woman in labor or one in post partum give a deposition against her M.D. recommendation or against her reasonable request. If I were hearing this, my question would be, "Since you knew of this witness for years, why did you wait until just before trial to take her deposition?" It could be that a hard-nose Judge would even deny them taking your deposition for unreasonable delay and keep the trial date so they go to trial without the deposition. If this was in Federal Court, you could expect that to happen. Meanwhile, where is BF's attorney in all this? Why isn't he filing a motion for a protective order for his witness? Seems like there is more than one Esq. Jerk here. What happens if you don't show? They get an order for your to give your depo, and they ask for attorney's fees (probably denied). The fact that you have disability for 8 weeks does not mean you get to delay the depo for 8 weeks, particularly if BF attorney intends to have you testify at trial. Other side is entitled to get your deposition, but not to unreasonable delay in getting it.
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