Subpoenas

Common forms for use in civil proceedings are:

• Form 42A Subpoena to Attend to Give Evidence 
• Form 42B Subpoena to Produce
• Form 42C Subpoena Both to Attend to Give Evidence and to Produce
• Form 42AA Subpoena for Production to the Prothonotary .
• Request to Inspect Subpoenaed Documents

For further information on Form 42A, 42B and 42C subpoenas, see Order 42 of the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2015.

For further information on Form 42AA subpoenas, see Order 42A of the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2015.

The party preparing the subpoena form must insert the following details before submitting to the court:

• all subpoenas – last date for service of the subpoena
• Form 42A (subpoena to attend to give evidence) – date, time and place for attendance
• Form 42B (subpoena to produce) – date, time and place for production
• Form 42C (subpoena both to attend to give evidence and to produce) – date, time and place for both attendance and production
• Form 42AA (subpoena for production to Prothonotary) – date for production.

Last date for Service

Unless the Court has fixed the last date for service, it must be:

• For a subpoena being served in Victoria, no less than 5 business days before the date on which the addressee must comply. See Rule 42.03(8) of the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2015.
• For a subpoena being served in another part of Australia, no less than 14 days before the date on which the addressee must comply. See Section 30(1) of the Service and Execution of Process Act 1992 (Cth).

Date for attendance

The date for attendance must be the first day of the trial, or another date ordered by the Court for:

• Form 42A (subpoena to attend to give evidence)
• Form 42C (subpoena both to attend to give evidence and to produce).

Date for production

The date for production must be the first day of the trial, or another date ordered by the Court for:

• Form 42B (subpoena to produce)
• Form 42C (subpoena both to attend to give evidence and to produce).

For a subpoena in Form 42AA (subpoena for production to Prothonotary), the party preparing it must nominate a date for production that:

• is a day when the Supreme Court Registry is open
• allows sufficient time for the subpoena to be served.

To request the Court to issue a subpoena, a party must file the subpoena in the correct form and pay a fee via RedCrest. 

In some circumstances a subpoena will not be issued. For example, when it would require a court to produce a document or where leave of the Court must be obtained first.

The Court issues a subpoena by accepting and sealing it via RedCrest. 

If you have been served with a subpoena, please read it carefully, including the ‘notes’ section. 

If you are having difficulty complying, you should contact the party who requested the subpoena. Their contact details will be on the first page of the subpoena. 

For procedural information, you may contact the Supreme Court Registry subpoena team by emailing fhocbranf@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@saneopbus  or by calling (03) 8600 2038.

Please note that court staff cannot provide you with legal advice.

Producing documents in response to a subpoena

Documents produced in response to a subpoena must only be provided to the court. Never provide documents directly to the party who requested the subpoena.

The addressee must

• complete the ‘declaration by addressee’ contained at the end of the subpoena form
• provide a copy of the subpoena with that completed declaration together with the documents being produced.

Documents cannot be produced via the court’s electronic filing system, RedCrest.

Addressees are not required to register for a RedCrest account.

Documents may be produced in one of the following ways.

Option 1 – preferred:

Email documents to fhocbranf@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@saneopbus .

In the subject line of the email state:

• the proceeding number (located in the top right-hand corner of the first page of the subpoena, below the court seal)
• the name of the person or entity to whom the subpoena is addressed. 

Option 2

If the documents are too large to email, upload them to the Supreme Court document exchange site.

To produce by this method:

• Email fhocbranf@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@saneopbus requesting a link for the Supreme Court document exchange site. In the subject line of the email state the proceeding number (located in the top right-hand corner of the first page of the subpoena, below the court seal) and the name of the person or entity to whom the subpoena is addressed. 
• The subpoena team in the Supreme Court Registry will provide the link by return email. The link will only work for the person it was sent to. 
• Open the link to access a folder on the document exchange site, then select ‘Upload’ at the top of the page to upload documents. 
• Reply to the fhocbranf@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@saneopbus to confirm that you have uploaded the documents.

Option 3

Post a hard copy of the documents to the Supreme Court Registry, 210 William Street, Melbourne VIC 3000.

Option 4

Deliver a hard copy of the documents to the Supreme Court Registry at 450 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne 

A party wanting to inspect documents produced to the Prothonotary in response to a subpoena must follow the steps below.

Step 1: After the date for production has passed (not before), email fhocbranf@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@saneopbus to ask whether documents have been produced.

We will not respond to emails received before the date for production.

Step 2: Complete a Request to Inspect Subpoenaed Documents form. Submit the form via RedCrest as a ‘subsequent filing’ in the proceeding and pay the fee. When submitting via RedCrest, select ‘Subsequent filing – Receipt for payment of subpoena inspection’ as the document type.

Step 3: We will assess the request to inspect subpoenaed documents. Your request to inspect the documents will be permitted if:

• The issuing party has filed an affidavit of service of the subpoena on all other parties to the proceeding.
• The last date for production has passed.
• If the subpoenaed documents are the plaintiff's medical records and the inspection request is by another party to the proceeding
  • at least 7 days after the last date for production has passed
  • if later, 7 days after the date of production has passed.
• No objections have been made about the subpoena or documents produced.
• Required, the Court granted leave to inspect the documents produced, for example a Form 42B or Form 42C subpoena.
• There are no Court orders restricting inspection.

Step 4: If inspection is approved, the request form will be accepted via RedCrest. The documents will be made available in one of the ways listed below: 

• by email to the contact email address stated in the Request to Inspect Subpoenaed Documents form
• via the Supreme Court document exchange site. The subpoena team in the Supreme Court Registry will provide a link to that site by email to the contact email address stated in the Request to Inspect Subpoenaed Documents form. The link will only work for the person it was sent to and expires after 14 days. The documents must be downloaded within that 14-day period. Requests for documents previously made available require resubmission of the form and you must pay a fee.
• making hard copies of the documents available for inspection in person at the Supreme Court Registry at 450 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne. The subpoena team in the Supreme Court Registry will contact the party to arrange an appointment.

This is determined by the Supreme Court Registry based on matters, such as the number, length and format (hard copy or electronic) of the subpoenaed documents.

Contact details for the subpoena team in the Supreme Court Registry are:

• Email: fhocbranf@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@saneopbus  
• Phone: 03 8600 2038