You get subpoenaed to court when an attorney in an active case, or a court clerk at a party’s request, prepares a signed subpoena with your name on it and arranges for someone to hand it to you. From that moment, you are under a court order to show up and testify, produce documents, or both. It does not matter that you are not suing anyone and no one is suing you. If someone involved in a lawsuit or criminal case believes you have information or records that matter, the court’s authority reaches you through that piece of paper.
In federal civil cases, the whole process runs on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45. Criminal matters follow a parallel track under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 17. The mechanics are similar: an authorized person issues the document, a qualified person delivers it, and you become legally obligated to comply.
Who Decides to Subpoena You
The authority to issue a subpoena traces back to the court, but it flows through two channels. Any attorney authorized to practice in the issuing court can sign and issue a subpoena directly, acting as an officer of that court.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena That is how most subpoenas start. A lawyer on one side of a case decides they need your testimony or your records, fills out the form, signs it, and sends it out for delivery.
The second channel runs through the clerk’s office. A court clerk can issue a signed but otherwise blank subpoena to a party who asks for one, and the requesting party fills in the name, date, and specifics before service.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena Either way, the document carries the court’s full force. The fact that a private attorney prepared and signed it does not weaken it.
Why you specifically? Usually because someone believes you witnessed something, hold relevant records, or work for an organization that does. You can be subpoenaed as a trial witness, a deposition witness, a records custodian, or any combination.
How the Subpoena Reaches You
Service of process is the formal act of delivering the subpoena so the court can confirm you actually received it. In federal civil cases, any person who is at least 18 and is not a party to the lawsuit can serve it.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena In federal criminal cases, a U.S. Marshal, a deputy marshal, or any nonparty age 18 or older can do it.2Cornell University. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 17 – Subpoena Many litigants hire professional process servers who track people down and document the handoff.
Hand delivery is the standard. A server physically gives you the document, and that is the moment you become legally bound. Some state courts allow backup methods when personal delivery fails, such as leaving the document with a responsible adult at your home or sending it by certified mail with a return receipt, but those alternatives vary by jurisdiction.
Once delivery is complete, the server files a proof of service with the issuing court, showing the date and method of service, identifying who was served, and certified by the person who made the delivery.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena Without that proof on file, the issuing party cannot enforce the subpoena against you if you do not appear.
What the Subpoena Will Tell You to Do
Open the document and read it carefully. Under Rule 45, every federal civil subpoena must identify the court that issued it, state the title of the case and its civil action number, and command you to do something specific at a stated time and place.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena Criminal subpoenas carry similar requirements: the court’s name, the title of the proceeding, the court’s seal, and a command to appear and testify at a specified time and location.2Cornell University. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 17 – Subpoena If any of those details are missing or vague, that is a basis to ask a judge to throw it out.
Subpoenas fall into two broad categories. A subpoena to testify (sometimes called a subpoena ad testificandum) requires you to appear and answer questions under oath, whether at trial, a hearing, or a deposition. A subpoena for documents (a subpoena duces tecum) orders you to produce specific records, files, or physical items. Many subpoenas combine both and expect you to show up with the documents in hand.
Modern subpoenas often demand electronically stored information: emails, spreadsheets, database records. If the subpoena does not specify a format, you can produce the files in whatever form you ordinarily keep them or in any reasonably usable format. You do not have to produce the same information in multiple formats, and you can object if pulling the data from certain sources would be unreasonably expensive or burdensome.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena
How Far You Can Be Made to Travel
A federal subpoena can be served anywhere in the United States, but there is a limit on how far it can drag you to appear. Under Rule 45, a subpoena can compel your attendance only within 100 miles of where you live, work, or regularly do business in person.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena A broader exception covers parties, their officers, and trial witnesses who would not face substantial expense: those individuals can be required to appear anywhere within the state where they reside, work, or transact business.
A subpoena that tries to compel attendance beyond those boundaries must be quashed or modified by the court. If you are asked to travel an unreasonable distance, geographic overreach is one of the strongest grounds for challenging the subpoena.
The Fee That Should Come With It
When a subpoena demands your personal attendance, the person serving it must hand you a witness fee and mileage payment at the time of delivery.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena In federal cases, the attendance fee is $40 per day, set by statute.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1821 – Per Diem and Mileage Generally; Subsistence The mileage allowance follows the General Services Administration rate for privately owned vehicles, which for 2026 is 72.5 cents per mile.4General Services Administration. GSA Bulletin FTR 26-02
One boundary worth knowing: when the federal government itself issues the subpoena, fees and mileage do not have to be tendered at service.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena If you were served a civil subpoena from a private party and no check came with it, that is itself a defect you can raise.
If You Think the Subpoena Is Wrong
Being handed a subpoena does not mean you have to accept every demand it contains. If it requires you to produce documents or permit an inspection, you can serve a written objection on the attorney or party who issued it. The deadline is strict: your objection must be served before the earlier of the compliance date stated in the subpoena, or 14 days after you were served.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena Miss that window and any challenge becomes much harder.
You or your attorney can also file a motion to quash, asking the court to cancel or modify the subpoena. A federal court is required to quash or modify a subpoena that:
- Fails to allow a reasonable time to comply.
- Requires attendance beyond the geographic limits described above.
- Demands privileged material, unless an exception or waiver applies.
- Imposes an undue burden, meaning the cost or disruption of compliance is disproportionate to the value of the information sought.
A court also has discretion to quash a subpoena that would force disclosure of trade secrets, confidential commercial information, or an expert’s unpublished research that was not prepared for the litigation. In those situations, the issuing party can still salvage the subpoena by showing a substantial need for the material that cannot be met any other way and by agreeing to reasonably compensate you.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena
Even if the subpoena itself stands, you may be able to withhold specific information based on legal privilege. The common ones are attorney-client privilege, the work-product doctrine, and the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Fifth Amendment does not let you skip the hearing. If you are subpoenaed to testify, you still have to appear. The privilege applies question by question: you listen to each question, and if answering would tend to incriminate you, you assert the privilege at that moment.
What Happens If You Just Ignore It
This is where people get into real trouble, and it happens more often than you might expect. Some witnesses assume that because they are not a party to the lawsuit, the subpoena is optional. It is not. A subpoena is a court order, and disobeying it triggers the court’s contempt power.
Federal courts have broad authority to punish contempt by fine, imprisonment, or both under 18 U.S.C. § 401.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 401 – Power of Court If a witness refuses to testify or produce evidence after being ordered to do so, the court can summarily order confinement until the witness complies. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1826, that confinement can last up to 18 months.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1826 – Recalcitrant Witnesses On the criminal side, willful disobedience of a court order can be prosecuted as criminal contempt, carrying fines and up to six months in jail.
The practical consequences are usually more immediate than a formal prosecution. Judges can issue a bench warrant for your arrest, and the disruption that follows is far worse than whatever inconvenience the subpoena originally posed. If you have a legitimate reason you cannot comply, the right move is to file a motion to quash or contact the issuing attorney to negotiate. Silence is not a strategy.
Your Job While You Comply
One of the first things people worry about when they are subpoenaed is their job. Taking time off to testify can create friction with an employer. Federal law addresses retaliation directly: under 18 U.S.C. § 1513, anyone who takes harmful action against a person for attending an official proceeding as a witness, including interference with employment, faces up to 10 years in prison for retaliation related to providing information to law enforcement, and up to 20 years for causing bodily injury or property damage in retaliation for testimony.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1513 – Retaliating Against a Witness, Victim, or an Informant
Many states have their own employment protections for witnesses who are subpoenaed. If your employer pushes back, give them a copy of the subpoena as documentation, and consult an employment attorney if the situation escalates. A subpoena is a court order, and no employer can legally override it.