Art. 1353 Prepayment of fees

If you want the court to issue a subpoena to bring a witness in, you have to pay for it first. Before the clerk of court will send out the subpoena, you need to deposit enough money to cover the witness's fees and expenses.

This means you can't ask the court to summon a witness for free. The law requires witnesses to be paid for their time and costs, so the person requesting the subpoena has to put up that money in advance. The clerk holds onto this payment and won't issue the subpoena until the deposit is made.

In short, if you want someone to testify or provide documents in your case, you need to plan ahead and set aside money to cover their fees before the court will act on your request.