Pennsylvania Code
Pennsylvania Code & Bulletin
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

• No statutes or acts will be found at this website.

The Pennsylvania Bulletin website includes the following: Rulemakings by State agencies; Proposed Rulemakings by State agencies; State agency notices; the Governor’s Proclamations and Executive Orders; Actions by the General Assembly; and Statewide and local court rules.

PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 15-546

THE COURTS

PART I. GENERAL

[ 231 PA. CODE CH. 200 ]

Order Amending Rule 234.1 of the Rules of Civil Procedure; No. 618 Civil Procedural Rules Doc.

[45 Pa.B. 1490]
[Saturday, March 28, 2015]

Order

Per Curiam

 And Now, this 9th day of March, 2015, upon the recommendation of the Civil Procedural Rules Committee; the proposal having been published for public comment at 44 Pa.B. 475 (January 25, 2014):

 It Is Ordered pursuant to Article V, Section 10 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania that Rule 234.1 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure is amended in the following form.

 This Order shall be processed in accordance with Pa.R.J.A. No. 103(b), and shall be effective April 8, 2015.

Annex A

TITLE 231. RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE

PART I. GENERAL

CHAPTER 200. BUSINESS OF COURTS

Rule 234.1. Subpoena to Attend and Testify.

*  *  *  *  *

 (c) A subpoena may not be used to compel a person to appear or to produce documents or things ex parte before an attorney, a party or a representative of the party.

 (d) A subpoena shall be served reasonably in advance of the date upon which attendance is required.

EXPLANATORY COMMENT

 The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has amended Rule 234.1 governing subpoenas to attend and testify. The amendment remedies a discrepancy between service of a subpoena on a non-party witness and service of a notice to attend on a party. Current Rule 234.3 provides that a party shall be served a notice to attend reasonably in advance of the date the party is required to attend and testify. Current Rule 234.1, on the other hand, is silent as to when a non-party witness should be served a subpoena before attendance is required. The result is that a party who is aware of and involved in litigation is entitled to reasonable notice, but a non-party witness who has no prior knowledge of a trial and no forewarning that he or she may be called to testify can be subpoenaed with no notice. The amendment of Rule 234.1 requires that a non-party witness be served a subpoena reasonably in advance of the date the witness is required to attend and testify.

By the Civil Procedural
Rules Committee

PETER J. HOFFMAN, 
Chair

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 15-546. Filed for public inspection March 27, 2015, 9:00 a.m.]


No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.

This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Bulletin full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.