Question for Paralegals?
I am acting as my own attorney in a divorce hearing. I have supoened a person to appear on my behalf. Am I required to give notice to my husband's attorney that I have supoened a witness? Thank you.
Answers:
Only if opposing counsel has filed a Motion of Discovery are you obliged to comply and inform him/her of any and all evidence and witnesses you intend to use during the hearing and trial.
YES! If you don't then the judge can keep that testimony out of the trial.
The best we can do is a "maybe." You don't have to do as a matter of course. You do if the judge has ordered it. If it's in an order, the order is probably called a "Scheduling Order," a "Pretrial Order", a "Case Management Order"--something like that. So--is there an Order from the court on disclosure of witnesses? No? Then you do not have to disclose.
It apparently depends on which state you live in. I recommend you find an annotated version of your state's rules of civil procedure and look it up for yourself. I will say that in my state failing to disclose a witness at trial after they asked for it can lead to the testimony being excluded.
It's always a good idea to serve a copy of everything you file with the court to the opposing side.
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