Responding to a Subpoena: Deadlines, Objections, and Production

If you want to know how to respond to a subpoena, start with the document itself: identify whether it demands testimony, documents, or both, note the compliance date on its face, and work backward from there. In federal court you may have as little as 14 days to serve a written objection, and your duty to preserve relevant evidence kicks in the moment the subpoena lands in your hands. Everything else — gathering records, asserting privilege, pushing back on an overbroad demand, or showing up to testify — flows from those first moves.

Read It and Find the Deadline

Subpoenas come in two basic forms. One orders you to appear in person and give testimony at a trial, hearing, or deposition. The other orders you to produce documents, electronic files, or other tangible evidence. Some demand both. Knowing which you’re holding tells you what’s actually being asked.

The face of the document identifies the court or agency that issued it, the case number, and the parties. Most importantly, it lists a compliance date: the deadline by which you must appear or deliver documents. That date controls almost everything else, including how long you have to object. If anything is unclear or the compliance date is impossibly soon, that’s a reason to call a lawyer quickly rather than assume you can sort it out later.

The Objection Window Is 14 Days

If you want to push back on a document subpoena, you have to serve a written objection on the requesting party before the earlier of two deadlines: the date the subpoena says you must comply, or 14 days after service.¹ Whichever comes first is your cutoff. Miss it and you’ve likely waived the right to object without a court order.

Once you serve a written objection, you don’t have to produce anything unless the requesting party goes to court and gets an order compelling compliance. That order must also protect non-parties from significant expense.¹ A timely written objection buys breathing room, but only if you actually serve it inside the window.

Preserve Everything Immediately

The moment you receive a subpoena, your duty to preserve relevant evidence begins. That covers paper files, emails, text messages, database records, voicemails, and anything else that could relate to the subject matter of the case. Federal courts recognize a subpoena as a specific event that triggers preservation obligations.²

For an individual, that means suspending routine cleanup of old emails or files. If you’re responding on behalf of a business, issue a written litigation hold notice to everyone in the organization who might have relevant records. The notice should explain what the hold covers, instruct employees to stop deleting anything potentially relevant, and warn about the consequences of ignoring it. A vague instruction to “save everything important” doesn’t cut it. The hold needs to identify the specific types of records to preserve in the context of the dispute.

Destroying or losing relevant evidence after your preservation duty is triggered can bring spoliation sanctions. Under the federal rules, if electronically stored information is lost because you failed to take reasonable steps to preserve it and the loss can’t be fixed through other discovery, a court can impose measures to remedy the harm. If you destroyed evidence intentionally, a court can instruct the jury to presume the missing information was unfavorable to you, or even dismiss your claims or enter a default judgment against you.³ This is where cases fall apart for people who panic and start deleting things.

Gather and Produce the Documents

Once preservation is locked down, find and organize everything the subpoena asks for. Under the federal rules, you must produce documents either as they’re kept in the ordinary course of business or organized and labeled to match the categories listed in the demand.¹ “Ordinary course of business” means how you actually store them, not some reorganized version designed to make records harder to find.

Search wherever relevant records might live: email accounts, cloud storage, physical filing cabinets, backup drives, archived systems. A common mistake is searching only the obvious locations. If you later claim you conducted a thorough search but overlooked an entire system, that undermines your credibility with the court.

Electronic Files and Format

When a subpoena requests electronically stored information, the requesting party can specify the format. If the subpoena doesn’t specify, produce it either in the form you ordinarily maintain or in a reasonably usable form. You don’t have to produce the same information in more than one format.¹ Metadata (creation dates, authorship, edit history) often matters to the requesting party, so converting everything to flat PDFs when the subpoena asks for native files can create problems.

Privileged Documents and the Privilege Log

If your search turns up documents protected by attorney-client privilege or work product protection, you don’t hand them over. Instead, you withhold them and create a privilege log: a list describing each withheld item in enough detail for the other side to evaluate whether the privilege claim is valid, without revealing the actual privileged content.¹ Each entry typically includes the date of the document, who created it, who received it, the general subject matter, and the specific privilege being asserted. Skipping this step or providing a sloppy log risks waiving the privilege entirely.

If the Subpoena Came Through Your Employer

If you receive a subpoena at work that asks for company records rather than your personal testimony, the obligation to respond generally falls on the organization, not on you personally. The company’s records custodian is usually responsible for locating and producing the requested documents. If you’re the employee whose records are being sought, you ordinarily have standing to challenge the subpoena yourself, such as by filing a motion to quash on privacy grounds, even if your employer doesn’t object.

Some organizations notify employees when a subpoena targets their records and give them a chance to raise concerns before anything is produced. Talk to your own attorney rather than relying solely on the company’s legal team. Your interests and the company’s interests don’t always align.

Grounds for Pushing Back

You aren’t required to comply with every subpoena as written. The federal rules give you several ways to challenge one that is defective, overreaching, or imposes an unreasonable burden.

Motions to Quash or Modify

A motion to quash asks the court to cancel the subpoena. A motion to modify asks the court to narrow it. Under the federal rules, a court must quash or modify a subpoena that doesn’t allow a reasonable time to comply, exceeds the geographic limits, demands privileged material without a valid waiver, or subjects you to an undue burden.¹ The party or attorney who issued the subpoena has an affirmative duty to take reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden or expense on you, and a court can sanction them for failing to do so.

Geographic Limits

A subpoena can only compel you to attend a trial, hearing, or deposition within 100 miles of where you live, work, or regularly do business in person. The same 100-mile limit applies to document production.¹ A narrow exception lets parties and their officers be compelled to attend trial anywhere within the state where they reside or work. If a subpoena asks you to travel farther than these limits allow, that’s mandatory grounds for quashing.

Confidential and Third-Party Information

When documents contain trade secrets, proprietary business information, or sensitive personal data belonging to people who aren’t involved in the case, the court can quash or modify the subpoena or impose conditions on how the information is handled. The requesting party may need to show a substantial need for the material that can’t be met any other way and ensure the person complying is reasonably compensated.¹

Try to Negotiate Before Filing

The federal rules don’t explicitly require a meet-and-confer before you file a motion to quash, but courts expect you to try. A phone call to the attorney who issued the subpoena can sometimes resolve the issue without court involvement. The request might be narrowed, the deadline extended, or certain categories dropped. Judges tend to look more favorably on people who made a good-faith effort to work things out before filing motions.

Witness Fees If You Have to Appear

If the subpoena requires you to show up in person, you’re entitled to compensation. Under federal law, the party serving the subpoena must tender one day’s attendance fee and mileage at the time of service.¹ The only exception is when the subpoena is issued on behalf of the United States government.

The federal witness attendance fee is $40 per day, which also covers travel time to and from the proceeding.⁴ Mileage reimbursement follows GSA rates, which as of January 2026 sit at $0.725 per mile for a personal vehicle.⁵ The $40 figure hasn’t been updated in decades and won’t come close to covering a day of lost wages, but it’s what the statute provides. State courts have their own fee schedules, and some pay even less.

Delivering Your Response

When your documents are ready, deliver them to the attorney or party identified on the subpoena by the compliance deadline. Common methods include hand-delivery, certified mail with a return receipt, and electronic filing through a court portal when available. If you’re sending physical documents, the return receipt creates a verifiable record that the materials arrived and when.

You’ll also need a proof of service: a signed statement showing the date and method of delivery and the names of the people served. The statement must be certified by the person who handled the delivery, and if necessary, filed with the issuing court.¹ Keep copies of everything you produce and every piece of correspondence related to the response. If a dispute later arises about whether you complied fully, your own records are the best defense.

What Happens If You Ignore It

Federal courts have broad power to punish contempt through fines, imprisonment, or both when someone disobeys a lawful court order, including a subpoena.⁶ Civil contempt is designed to force compliance: a judge can order escalating daily fines that continue until you do what the subpoena requires. For witnesses who refuse to testify or produce documents after a court order, a judge can summarily order confinement until the witness cooperates, and that confinement can last up to 18 months.⁷ Criminal contempt is punishment for defying the court’s authority and carries its own penalties, including the possibility of a bench warrant for your arrest.

Not every failure to comply results in sanctions. Courts recognize legitimate reasons for non-compliance, including attorney-client privilege, the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and procedural defects or undue burden in the subpoena itself. The key phrase in the federal statute is “without just cause shown.” If you have a genuine legal basis for not complying, raise it through a formal objection or motion rather than ignoring the subpoena and hoping for the best.⁷

1
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena
2
United States Courts. Elements of a Preservation Rule
3
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37 – Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1821 – Per Diem and Mileage Generally
5
U.S. General Services Administration. Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 401 – Power of Court
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1826 – Recalcitrant Witnesses