Phone records can be important evidence in legal cases. A subpoena may be necessary to obtain them from the service provider. They can be used in criminal cases to corroborate alibis or show relationships, and in civil cases to prove contract discussions. The subpoena must be specific and sent to the correct person or section of the provider. The recipient must comply unless they have a valid objection or cannot produce the records.
Phone records can be crucial evidence in a variety of types of litigation. A party may need to subpoena the phone records to obtain an official copy. A party may also have to subpoena the phone records if the provider is unwilling to release records absent a court order. The legal process used to subpoena phone records is to issue a duces tecum subpoena, often referred to as a third-party or non-partisan subpoena, to the telephone service provider.
Phone records may be needed in a civil or criminal case. In a criminal case, phone records could corroborate an alibi for a defendant or demonstrate a pre-existing relationship between a victim and a suspect for the prosecution. In a civil case, phone records can help establish that a conversation about the terms of a contract, for example, actually took place.
In order to sue phone records, the first step is to determine who is the custodian of the records. While this may seem easy, in some cases where the provider is a large corporation, it may be necessary to determine exactly who the subpoena should be addressed to and to what address. Large companies generally have a specific person or section designated for receiving subpoenas or other legal documents.
A subpoena must then be prepared. In some jurisdictions, an attorney may subpoena phone records without prior court approval, while, in others, the subpoena must be prepared and filed with the court for judge approval prior to issuance. The subpoena should be as specific as possible, as the recipient of the subpoena is not legally obligated to produce anything that is not listed in the subpoena. Common information found in a subpoena for phone records includes the subscriber or customer name and account number, telephone number, and dates covered by the subpoena.
Once the subpoena has been prepared and approved, if requested, the subpoena is sent to the appropriate person or section of the telephone company. A subpoena is a court order, which means that the recipient has a legal obligation to produce the documents listed in the subpoena in the absence of a compelling reason not to. If the addressee of the summons believes they have a valid objection to the order to produce the records, such as a matter of confidentiality, an objection must be filed with the court. Likewise, if the recipient is unable to comply with the subpoena because the documents were lost, stolen or destroyed, or were never in the recipient’s custody, the recipient must notify the court.
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