A subpoena is a legal order that requires you to testify, hand over documents, or both in connection with a court case or government investigation. It carries the authority of the court or agency behind it, and ignoring one can lead to fines or jail. If you’ve been handed one, the document creates a real legal obligation, and the clock on your response has already started.
What a Subpoena Can Require You to Do
Subpoenas come in two basic forms, and some combine both.
A subpoena ad testificandum orders you to appear at a specific time and place to give sworn testimony. That place might be a courtroom, a deposition, a hearing, or a Congressional inquiry. You answer questions under oath, and your answers go on the record.1Legal Information Institute. Subpoena
A subpoena duces tecum orders you to produce specific evidence instead of, or in addition to, testifying. The requested materials might include business records, emails, financial statements, contracts, or electronically stored data. The subpoena has to describe the items with enough specificity that you can tell what to gather.2Legal Information Institute. Subpoena Duces Tecum Under federal rules, a subpoena can also command you to allow inspection of property or premises.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena
A single subpoena often does both, especially before a deposition, where the attorney wants to question you about the records you bring.
Who Issues Subpoenas
Although a subpoena is issued on behalf of a court, it’s usually prepared and signed by an attorney in the case or a court clerk, not a judge. The requesting party uses it to gather facts during discovery or to secure witness testimony at trial. They show up in both civil and criminal cases.1Legal Information Institute. Subpoena
Not every subpoena comes from a court case. Federal agencies can issue administrative subpoenas to compel document production or testimony during investigations, often without a judge’s approval up front. Agencies like the IRS, SEC, and DEA use them routinely.4U.S. Department of Justice. Report to Congress on the Use of Administrative Subpoena Authorities by Executive Branch Agencies and Entities The key point: these subpoenas don’t need a judge’s signature to be issued, but they’re still enforced through the courts if you refuse.
When a Subpoena Is Actually Binding
A subpoena only takes legal effect once it’s properly served. Under federal rules, any person who is at least 18 and not a party to the case can serve a subpoena by delivering a copy to the named recipient.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena Criminal subpoenas work similarly, with the added option of service by a U.S. Marshal.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 17 – Subpoena
Witness Fees Must Be Tendered
When a subpoena requires you to attend a proceeding in person, the party serving it has to tender the statutory witness fee and mileage allowance along with the subpoena itself.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena In federal court, the attendance fee is $40 per day, owed for every day you’re required to appear plus travel days.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1821 – Per Diem and Mileage Generally; Subsistence Mileage for driving your own vehicle follows the GSA rate, which is 72.5 cents per mile for 2026.7General Services Administration. GSA Bulletin FTR 26-02 The government doesn’t have to tender fees when the subpoena is issued on behalf of the United States or its agencies.
The 100-Mile Limit
A subpoena can’t drag you across the country. Federal rules cap a subpoena’s reach at 100 miles from where you live, work, or regularly do business in person. Document subpoenas follow the same 100-mile boundary.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena A narrow exception lets parties and their officers be compelled to attend trial anywhere in their state of residence or work, as long as it wouldn’t cause substantial expense. State court rules vary but tend to impose similar geographic limits.
What to Do After You’re Served
The single worst move is to do nothing. Even if the subpoena looks irrelevant or overreaching, ignoring it exposes you to contempt.
Read it carefully and write down the compliance deadline. Then talk to an attorney, especially if you aren’t a party to the underlying case. A lawyer can tell you whether the subpoena was properly served, whether the court has authority over you, and whether you have grounds to object or narrow it.
If the subpoena asks for documents, preserve everything within its possible scope right away. Suspend any routine deletion of emails, pause document destruction policies, and make sure nothing relevant disappears. Losing evidence, even by accident, can bring its own sanctions.
Watch the 14-Day Objection Window
If you receive a subpoena for documents or inspection, you can serve written objections on the requesting party. Under federal rules, those objections must be served before the compliance date or within 14 days after service, whichever comes first.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena Miss that window and you may waive your right to object. This is where people get caught: they assume they have until the compliance date, but if that date is more than two weeks out, the 14-day clock controls.
What You Don’t Have to Turn Over
Not everything a subpoena demands has to be handed over. Several legal privileges can shield information, but you have to assert them correctly or you lose them.
The common ones include attorney-client privilege for confidential communications with your lawyer, the work-product doctrine for materials prepared in anticipation of litigation, and the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when producing the information could expose you to criminal liability. Trade secrets and confidential commercial information also get protection.
The Privilege Log
If you withhold documents on privilege grounds, you can’t just stay silent about it. Federal rules require you to expressly claim the privilege and describe each withheld document in enough detail that the other side can evaluate the claim without seeing the privileged content.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena That document-by-document listing is a privilege log, and it typically includes the date, author, recipients, general subject matter, and the specific privilege claimed. Sloppy privilege logs are one of the fastest ways to lose a privilege fight.
Medical Records
Subpoenas frequently seek medical records, and healthcare providers face another layer of regulation under HIPAA. A covered entity can disclose protected health information in response to a court order, but only what the order specifically authorizes. When the subpoena arrives without a court order, the provider can release records only if the requesting party shows one of two things: that the patient received adequate written notice and had a chance to object, or that the parties obtained a qualified protective order limiting how the information will be used.8eCFR. 45 CFR 164.512 If neither condition is met, the provider should not release the records, regardless of what the subpoena says.
How to Challenge a Subpoena
When a subpoena is improper or unreasonably burdensome, you can ask the court to throw it out by filing a motion to quash or modify. File it in the district where compliance is required, and file it before your compliance deadline or objection deadline, whichever applies first.
Grounds That Force the Court to Quash
Under federal rules, a court must quash or modify a subpoena that:
- Doesn’t allow reasonable time to comply, such as a demand for thousands of documents in two days.
- Exceeds geographic limits by requiring you to appear more than 100 miles from where you live or work.
- Seeks privileged information where no exception applies.
- Imposes an undue burden, where the cost or effort of compliance far outweighs the likely benefit to the requesting party.
These aren’t discretionary. Prove any of them and the court has to quash or narrow the subpoena.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena
Grounds That Give the Court Discretion
Courts may also quash or modify a subpoena that demands trade secrets, confidential commercial information, or opinions from an expert who wasn’t retained by either party. Here the court has flexibility: rather than killing the subpoena, it can allow it to stand with conditions, such as requiring the requesting party to compensate you for your time and expense.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena
Cost Protection If You’re Not a Party
If you aren’t a party to the lawsuit and a subpoena drags you in, the court must protect you from significant expense resulting from compliance.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena In practice, that means the court can order the party who served the subpoena to cover your reasonable costs of gathering, reviewing, and producing the materials. This matters most for businesses facing broad document subpoenas that require expensive electronic searches or outside counsel review.
Penalties for Ignoring a Subpoena
Failing to comply with a valid subpoena exposes you to contempt of court. Federal courts have the power to punish contempt by fine, imprisonment, or both, and disobedience of any lawful court order, including a subpoena, falls within that authority.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 401 – Power of Court
For witnesses who refuse to testify or produce evidence despite a court order, federal law allows confinement until the witness agrees to comply. That confinement can last up to 18 months, capped by the life of the court proceeding or grand jury term.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1826 – Recalcitrant Witnesses A court can also issue a bench warrant for a witness who simply doesn’t show up. Monetary fines vary widely, and courts have broad discretion to set them at whatever level they believe will compel compliance.
Even if you think a subpoena is invalid or overreaching, the right response is a motion to quash, not silence. Courts reserve their harshest treatment for people who treat subpoenas as optional.