What are supplementary proceedings?

    Over nearly a thousand years, there has been a growing trend to put everything that needs to be done in connection with a single cause of action into a single lawsuit.  While subpoenas were originally issued as an equity proceeding to compel a witness to attend a common law trial (that already sounds pretty complex), they are now routinely issued in connection with trials without starting a sperate lawsuit to obtain them.

    Yet some matters must still be handled as a supplementary proceedings.  Enforcing a foreign judgment is a supplementary proceeding, just in a court in a different jurisdiction.  While most of these mechanisms are pretty antiquated, there are some valid reasons to use them.  A bill of discovery will allow you to interrogate a third party to identity a possible defendant whose identity is not known.  After all, how can you sue someone you don't know?

    If you need to obtain information in a foreign jurisdiction to help prosecute a lawsuit, that is a supplementary proceeding.  This can be done as a bill of discovery, under the Hague Convention On The Taking Of Evidence Abroad In Civil Or Commercial Matters (concluded 18 March 1970) or under 28 U.S.C. §1782 Assistance to foreign and international tribunals and to litigants before such tribunals, which provides:

(a) The district court of the district in which a person resides or is found may order him to give his testimony or statement or to produce a document or other thing for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal, including criminal investigations conducted before formal accusation. The order may be made pursuant to a letter rogatory issued, or request made, by a foreign or international tribunal or upon the application of any interested person and may direct that the testimony or statement be given, or the document or other thing be produced, before a person appointed by the court. By virtue of his appointment, the person appointed has power to administer any necessary oath and take the testimony or statement. The order may prescribe the practice and procedure, which may be in whole or part the practice and procedure of the foreign country or the international tribunal, for taking the testimony or statement or producing the document or other thing. To the extent that the order does not prescribe otherwise, the testimony or statement shall be taken, and the document or other thing produced, in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. A person may not be compelled to give his testimony or statement or to produce a document or other thing in violation of any legally applicable privilege.

(b) This chapter does not preclude a person within the United States from voluntarily giving his testimony or statement, or producing a document or other thing, for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal before any person and in any manner acceptable to him.

Supplementary proceedings can also be done to enforce a judgment, such as the examination of a judgment debtor.