California Code of Civil Procedure 1987 sets out how a civil subpoena is served on a witness, what fees must be offered at the time of service, and when a written notice to a party’s attorney can be used in place of formal subpoena service. It is the statute you work from when you have already prepared a subpoena and need to compel someone to appear or bring materials to a deposition, hearing, or trial.
What Section 1987 Controls
The statute is about service and notice, not issuance. It does not decide who can sign or issue a subpoena. What it governs is how that subpoena reaches the witness, what has to accompany it, and how much lead time the witness is entitled to.1California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987
Three situations fall under its reach: personal service of a subpoena on any witness, written notice to a party’s attorney as a substitute for formal subpoena service, and requests directed at a party to bring documents or electronically stored information to a proceeding. Peace officers, firefighters, and other public employees are handled under a different track that the statute cross-references to Government Code sections 68097.1 through 68097.8.
How to Serve a Subpoena on a Witness
For most witnesses, service means delivering a copy of the subpoena, or a summary of it, to the witness in person. Any person can do the delivering. You do not need a sheriff, a licensed process server, or an attorney, though using a professional process server produces a cleaner record of service if compliance becomes an issue.1California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987
At the moment of personal service, whoever is delivering the subpoena must offer the witness fees for round-trip travel to the designated location plus one day of attendance, if the witness asks for them. If the witness demands those fees and the server cannot produce them, the witness has grounds to refuse compliance. Service must also leave the witness enough time to reasonably prepare and travel.
Serving a Minor
When the witness is under 18, the subpoena goes to the minor’s parent, guardian, conservator, or similar fiduciary. If none of those people can be located with reasonable effort, service goes to whoever has care or control of the minor, or the person the minor lives or works with. If the minor is at least 12, the minor also gets a copy directly.1California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987
When You Can Skip the Subpoena and Just Send a Notice
For witnesses who are already inside the case, Section 1987 lets you bypass formal subpoena service entirely. If the person you want to compel is a party, someone the case is being prosecuted or defended for, or an officer, director, or managing agent of such a party, you can serve a written notice on that person’s attorney instead. The notice has to state the time and place of the proceeding.1California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987
Once that notice is properly served, it carries the same force as a subpoena. The same contempt power and the same sanctions apply to a party who ignores an attorney-to-attorney notice as to a witness who ignores a formal subpoena.
Notice Deadlines That Decide Whether Your Subpoena Works
The lead-time rules under Section 1987 are strict, and missing one of them is the fastest way to lose a subpoena. The deadline depends on what you are asking the witness to do.
- Attendance only: written notice to a party’s attorney must be served at least 10 days before the required attendance date, unless the court orders a shorter period.1California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987
- Attendance with documents: if the notice also tells the person to bring books, documents, electronically stored information, or other materials, service must happen at least 20 days before the attendance date, unless the court shortens the period.
- Objection window: the recipient of a notice that includes a document production request has 5 days (or longer if the court allows) to serve written objections identifying which items they contest and why.
When the notice calls for documents, it must describe the exact materials wanted and confirm that the recipient has them in their possession or control. Vague descriptions are a common reason production requests collapse.
Document Subpoenas: The Affidavit Rule
If you are issuing a subpoena duces tecum, Section 1987.5 adds a validity requirement tied directly to service. A copy of the supporting affidavit must be served on the witness at the same time as the subpoena. Without that affidavit, the entire subpoena is invalid.2California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987.5
When the subpoena duces tecum requires a deposition appearance, the affidavit and the description of requested materials also have to be attached to the deposition notice served on every party or their attorney. The party who issued the subpoena keeps the original affidavit until final judgment and only files it if someone asks the court to see it. If documents end up produced under a subpoena that broke these rules, the opposing side can move for relief, and the court can exclude the evidence, order the deposition retaken, or grant a continuance. Subpoenas that only command production of business records for copying under CCP 2020.410 and following do not require the affidavit.
A subpoena aimed at a third-party custodian for someone’s personal records (bank, medical, employment) also triggers the consumer-notice regime under CCP 1985.3, which runs on its own timeline and requires serving the affected consumer with the subpoena, the affidavit, a privacy notice, and proof of service before the custodian can produce anything.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1985.3
Out-of-State Witnesses Fall Outside Section 1987
A witness cannot be compelled to attend a California proceeding under these rules unless that person was a California resident at the time of service. That limit applies to every witness category, including the parties, officers, and managing agents who can otherwise be reached by attorney-to-attorney notice under Section 1987(b). To get testimony from a non-resident, you have to use out-of-state witness procedures through the courts of the witness’s home state.4California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1989
Challenging or Modifying a Subpoena
Not every subpoena has to be obeyed as written. Section 1987.1 lets several categories of people ask the court to quash the subpoena entirely, modify its terms, or impose protective conditions, and the court can also act on its own after giving the parties notice and a chance to be heard.5California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987.1
Those who can bring the motion include:
- A party to the litigation.
- A witness named in the subpoena.
- A consumer whose personal records are being subpoenaed under CCP 1985.3.
- An employee whose employment records are being sought under CCP 1985.6.
- A person whose identifying information is being sought in a case involving their free speech rights.
The court’s authority is broad. It can issue protective orders against unreasonable or oppressive demands, including demands that would unreasonably invade someone’s privacy. A consumer targeted under CCP 1985.3 does not have to file a motion at all; a written objection served before the production date works too.
Section 1987.2 gives the court discretion to award the reasonable costs of bringing or opposing a motion to quash, including attorney’s fees, if the motion was brought or opposed in bad faith, lacked substantial justification, or involved oppressive subpoena requirements. That cuts both ways. A frivolous motion can leave the moving party paying the other side’s legal costs, and an oppressive subpoena can leave the issuing party covering the witness’s expenses in fighting it.6California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1987.2
What Happens If a Witness Ignores the Subpoena
Ignoring a valid subpoena is treated as contempt of court. Under CCP 1218, someone found in contempt faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to five days in jail, or both.7California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1218
Courts rarely start with jail. The usual sequence is an order compelling compliance, followed by an award of attorney’s fees to the party that had to bring the motion. Penalties escalate from there if the non-compliance continues. The court can also impose evidentiary sanctions: when a party refuses to produce critical documents, the court can issue adverse rulings tied to those documents, effectively treating the missing evidence as unfavorable to the party withholding it. Because Section 1987(b) gives attorney-to-attorney notices the same force as a subpoena, the same contempt and sanctions framework reaches a party who ignores one.