§ 24-10-40 - Application for subpoena; hearing; use of written questions
O.C.G.A. 24-10-40 (2010)
24-10-40. Application for subpoena; hearing; use of written questions
(a) Any party to an application for injunction, motion for new trial, or other case tried only on affidavits who desires to introduce into evidence the affidavit of any witness not a party to the record and who is unwilling to make affidavit may apply to the clerk of the superior court where the action is pending for a subpoena to compel the attendance of such witness at the hearing, subject to the rules applicable to the case of ordinary witnesses. Written questions may be prepared by the party desiring the evidence; and the witness shall answer such questions in the presence of the judge or of some person to be designated as commissioner by the judge, who may swear the witness to testify truly in answer to the questions propounded. The answers of the witness shall be written down, sworn to, and subscribed by the witness at the hearing. If the witness at the hearing consents, an affidavit containing the facts may be prepared and may then be sworn to by the witness. No cross-examination shall be allowed.
(b) When any application for injunction, motion for new trial, or other case tried only on affidavits is heard in any county other than the county in which the action is pending, any party to such injunction, motion for new trial, or other case who desires to introduce into evidence the affidavit of any witness not a party to the record and unwilling to make affidavit may prepare written questions to elicit the information he desires. On application, the clerk of the superior court of the county in which the action is pending and in which the witness resides shall issue a subpoena requiring the witness to attend before some officer of the county named therein, authorized to administer oaths, on a day therein fixed, to answer the questions. The answers shall be reduced to writing and sworn to by the officer who shall forward or deliver the questions and answers to the clerk of the court in which the case is pending, as in the case of interrogatories. It shall be the duty of the clerk to enter on the questions and on the answers a certificate of the date of receipt and from whom or in what manner he received them, to sign the same, and, on application of the party or his counsel interrogating the witness, to deliver the same to him.