What is a Summons?
A summons is an Order which can compel and individual to attend Court.
Often, it is used in civil proceedings when someone has breached a Court Order, and the Court will summons that person to attend court on X date at Y time to answer the allegation(s). Usually, if that person does not attend, the Judge will order an arrest warrant.
A Summons can also come from Magistrates Courts – for example driving offenses, TV license claims and so forth – will generally require a person to attend to answer the case, if it’s been dealt with otherwise.
A tactical approach to litigation is a Witness Summons – which I shall explain on this page.
Witness Summons
A Witness Summons can be a handy way of compelling someone to give witness evidence because they may otherwise fail to.
Often Witnesses can be reluctant to give evidence at Trial because they may be worried about the consequences of doing so, they may be worried about breaching some form of contract or NDA, or simply they are unreliable and impossible to pin down to get a Witness Statement out of.
In my view, the most effective way of Summoning a Witness in civil claims is to combining a Summons with a Witness Summary.
A Witness Summary will include the ‘known facts’ that the Witness would give, if they were to attend Court and give evidence in the usual way.
By combining a Summary and a Summons, it in theory forces the opposing side to limit their questions to the Witness Summary – as theoretically your opponent is required to limit their questioning.
Both Witness Summaries and Summons can be applied for without notice (with a fee), and the norm is to serve the Witness Summary when exchanging Witness Statements.
In some cases, once summoned, a Witness may just simply comply and voluntarily give evidence.
Something to watch out for!
Whilst romantically, a Witness Summons could be the perfect solution to a witness who won’t give evidence voluntarily there are two things to bear in mind;
Firstly: The Court will need to be satisfied the Application for the Summons is proper, and there are proper grounds to issue the Summons. Usually the Judge will want to know (a) why the Witness will not cooperate; (b) whether that evidence will assist the Cour; and (c) whether by refusing the Application will prejudice the Applicant.
Secondly: Even if you have a Witness Summons granted, and the Witness arrives at Trial – they could well be hostile, annoyed, upset, angry, flippant etc, etc – so they may hinder rather than assist your case! It is therefore important to understand the reasons why that Witness will not voluntarily provide evidence.