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Do you know what a subpoena duces tecum is? You don't? Come join me, I'll tell you what
it is. Hi, I'm Gerry Oginski; I'm a New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial
attorney practicing law here in the state of New York. A subpoena is a document that
compels somebody to do something. A subpoena duces tecum is a Latin phrase that basically
says we want you to provide us with copies of the medical records or the original record.
And we use that as we're getting close to trial and we want to bring in the patient's
records or somebody else’s medical records or a document into court. And now it compels
the office to actually prepare those documents, send it to the court with a copy of this document
known as a subpoena. It will allow us to get records admitted into evidence without having
to get a witness from the doctor's office or from the hospital to certify that these
are accurate and true records. So the subpoena is nothing more than a document to compel
you to do something. Now, if we are serving this particular document on a municipality
or a hospital owned by a municipality than we are required to get a judicial signature,
a court's signature to give greater weight and greater authority. Otherwise, that hospital
will ignore the subpoena and say that it's not appropriate and then we have to do it
all over again. Now, the subpoenas themselves that document has to be delivered to the person
or to the office in a particular manner. And if it's not done correctly we run the risk
of having it rejected and then having to do it all over again. So there are people that
we use who literally make a living out of delivering those types of legal documents,
they are known as process servers. And they are familiar with the methods of properly
delivering these documents to people that we need records from or we need their personal
appearance from. So why do I tell you this? I tell you this because chances are you want
to learn about these types of cases here in the state of New York. You want to learn about
malpractice cases, negligence cases, wrongful death cases. Well you've come to the right
place. But this video just gives you one little tip and insight into how the cases proceed
throughout the course of litigation. And what I encourage you to do is if you have legal
questions, pick up the phone and call me. This is what I do every single day, I answer
legal questions just like yours, and I welcome your call. You can reach me at 516-487-8207
or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com. I'm Gerry Oginski, in New York, thanks for watching.