My ex's cousin is an attorney and I found out he subpeonaed my medical and phone records just because my ex wanted to see them. Is that legal?
Question Details:My ex-boyfriend had his cousin who is an attorney subpoena my medical and phone records because my ex wanted to see them. There is no court case or any reason for him to be subpoenaing this information. Is it legal for him to do this? I feel like this is an invasion of my privacy.
Absolutely not. This is an abuse of process, and I'd strongly recommend that you take your proof of this to an attorney of your own, and sue both your ex-boyfriend and the cousin. It might even be possible to get punitive damages for this, because it's outrageous.
A subpoena is a curious thing: it has the force of a court order, but it can be issued by a party to a lawsuit or their attorney without any participation by the court itself. For this reason, when a subpoena is issued for this type of information (about a party to the lawsuit, but directed to someone else who has the records), a copy of the subpoena has to be sent to the person whose records are sought so that they have an opportunity to ask the court to "quash" (cancel) the subpoena.
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