Pen. Code, § 1327 · Chapter 3. Compelling the Attendance of Witnesses
Pen. Code, § 1327
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
A subpoena authorized by Section 1326 shall be substantially in the following form:
The people of the State of California to A. B.:
You are commanded to appear before C. D., a judge of the ____ Court of ____ County, at (naming the place), on (stating the day and hour), as a witness in a criminal action prosecuted by the people of the State of California against E. F.
Given under my hand this ____ day of ____, A.D. 19____. G. H., Judge of the ____ Court (or “J. K., District Attorney,” or “J. K., District Attorney Investigator,” or “D. E., Public Defender,” or “D. E., Public Defender Investigator,” or “F. G., Defense Counsel,” or “By order of the court, L. M., Clerk,” or as the case may be).
If books, papers, or documents are required, a direction to the following effect must be contained in the subpoena: “And you are required, also, to bring with you the following” (describing intelligibly the books, papers, or documents required).
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 931, Sec. 403. Effective September 28, 1998.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=1327.
- Text hash
- sha256 4e14fbc080d8cfeafb6cbbc8af575182aeea50c3a21ccae06b14df88acf31f91
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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Penal Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.