Art. 1447.Failure to Attend Or to Serve Subpoena; Expenses

Notice a deposition and other parties will show up expecting it to happen, sometimes traveling and always spending time preparing. Article 1447 protects that reliance in two scenarios. First, if the party who gave notice fails to attend and proceed with the deposition, but another party shows up in person or through an attorney, the court can order the party who gave notice to pay the reasonable expenses that other party incurred in attending, including reasonable attorney's fees.

Second, the same remedy applies when the failure is on the subpoena side rather than a no-show by the noticing party itself: if the noticing party fails to subpoena the witness, the witness therefore does not attend, and another party shows up anyway expecting that witness's deposition to be taken, the court can again order the noticing party to cover the other party's reasonable expenses and attorney's fees.

Both branches share the same purpose: discourage wasted trips. A party who calls a deposition bears the responsibility of following through, and if they do not, the article gives the parties who relied on that notice a way to recover what the failure cost them.