§ 25-1273.Nonparty; discovery; subpoena; procedure.

Not every piece of relevant information sits with a party to the lawsuit. Sometimes it sits with a bank, an employer, a records custodian, or some other outsider to the case. This section supplies the mechanism for reaching that nonparty. When the discovery rules the Supreme Court promulgates authorize discovery from a nonparty without a deposition, a subpoena for that purpose is issued by the clerk of the court where the action is pending, upon a party's request.

The section does not require going through the clerk in every instance. An attorney, acting as an officer of the court, may also issue and sign such a subpoena on behalf of a court where that attorney is authorized to practice, without waiting on the clerk's office. Once issued, the subpoena has to be served in the time and manner the discovery rules require.

This tool is narrower than the general party-to-party discovery mechanics — interrogatories, requests for production, and the like — that operate between the parties themselves under the Supreme Court's broader discovery rules. Section 25-1273 addresses only the specific situation of reaching a nonparty by subpoena without a deposition, and it has a built-in limit: the discovery rules cannot be read to permit subpoena discovery of information that a statute protects, or where using this procedure would conflict with any other statute.