Criminal defense lawyer in San Diego Stefano Molea discusses the importance of following a court order and the consequences if one fails to do so.

Law Office of David P. Shapiro
3500 5th Avenue #304
San Diego, CA 92103
https://www.davidpshapirolaw.com/

Hi, Stefano Molea here, San Diego criminal defense lawyer and partner at the Law Office of David P. Shapiro, where we help good people regain control of the future when charged with a crime. So let's say that you received a subpoena to appear in court as a witness. Should you go? Well, yeah, you should go. It's a lawful order for you to appear in court and if you don't go, here's what a judge could do. A judge could essentially get a sheriff to come and get you and bring you to court. And if you take the stand and you refuse to comply with the court order, you can be held in civil contempt, in which case the judge could imprison you for up to five days and fine you a thousand bucks. And if you fail to follow a court order, you could also potentially be prosecuted under penal code section 166 for failing to comply with a lawful court order. And if you were to be prosecuted for that and convicted you could face potentially six months in jail plus a fine, and that's a misdemeanor. Now, there is an exception to a situation in which the witness who's being subpoenaed is considered a victim of domestic violence. In that case, the law actually only permits a fine be imposed. The person can still be held in contempt but only a fine can be imposed. A potential victim or witness related to a domestic violence case cannot be imprisoned for deciding not to testify, even if they are lawfully ordered to do so. Now, I do wanna make a note here. Now, we've talked about contempt, the civil contempt aspect of it, which is a judge's ability to essentially pressure someone or have some bite when it comes to an order that the person has to testify when lawfully subpoenaed and lawfully ordered to do so. And if they don't, then there's gonna be consequences. And we've talked about the potential for criminal prosecution for someone who fails to abide by a court order under penal code section 166. And we've also discussed it within the context of a domestic violence victim and the fact that there are some differences there as far as the inability for someone who refuses to testify as a victim to be jailed. Now, it's important here that if someone is considered a witness, that nothing be done that can be interpreted as potentially interfering with that person, showing up to court, or talking to police, or participating in the court process. Because if I am accused of interfering with someone participating in the court process, or not going to court et cetera, not dealing with law enforcement, or answering law enforcement, or trying to get them to avoid being served so that they can then be required to go to court. All that is considered dissuading a witness potentially. And that can result in felony charges and not just felony charges, right? Dissuading a witness is a strike felony. And so it's very important that when we talk about contempt and being required to show up to court as a witness and the potential consequences there, that people don't get the bright idea to do something to interfere with the lawful process. That is a big nono. And the law is not friendly towards those who attempt to dissuade a witness, or dissuade a witness to participate in a criminal investigation, or the court proceedings, et cetera. So hope this discussion was somewhat helpful and if you have any questions leave them in the comments or give us a call. My name's again, Stefano Molea. I'm a partner at the Law Office of David P. Shapiro. Our phone number is 2953555.