A South Carolina subpoena duces tecum is issued on Form SCCA 254 under Rule 45 of the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure, and it lets you compel a non-party to hand over documents, electronically stored information, or physical items relevant to your pending lawsuit. The form is signed and issued by either the clerk of court or an attorney of record, must come from the county where the recipient lives, works, or regularly does business, and cannot be served on the recipient until every other party in the case has had at least ten days’ notice.
Download and Prepare Form SCCA 254
The current form is titled “Subpoena in a Civil Case” and is available as a PDF from the South Carolina Judicial Branch forms page or in printed form at your county clerk of court’s office. It was last revised in April 2026 and handles testimony, document production, or both through a set of command checkboxes.
Before filling it in, pull your case caption (full names of plaintiff and defendant), the court where the case is pending, and the case number. These three identifiers go at the top and must match your other filings exactly.
For a documents-only subpoena, check the box that commands the recipient to produce and permit inspection and copying of designated items, then enter the name and address of the person or entity being subpoenaed along with the place, date, and time for production.
Describing What You Want Produced
The description section is where most subpoenas succeed or fail. Vague requests invite objections and delays. Narrow the scope by naming date ranges, the people involved, and the subject matter. Something like “All email correspondence between John Smith and Jane Doe from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023 concerning the lease agreement for 456 Oak Street, Columbia, SC” is far more defensible than “all emails.”
If you need electronically stored information in a particular format, say so. Rule 45 covers emails, databases, text messages, spreadsheets, and metadata, but if you do not specify a format, the recipient may produce the information in the form it is ordinarily maintained or in any reasonably usable form, and you cannot demand the same information in multiple formats. When timestamps, authorship data, or edit history matter, call out metadata in the description. Otherwise you may receive static PDFs that strip it out.
The form also has a certification line where the issuing person confirms compliance with Rule 45(c)(1) and that notice has been given to all parties. Do not sign it until notice has actually been served on every other party. That certification is a representation to the court.
Who Can Issue the Subpoena, and From Which County
A completed SCCA 254 has no legal force until it is formally issued. Two people can issue one in South Carolina: the clerk of court, who will sign and seal a blank subpoena on request so you can fill it in before service, and an attorney of record authorized to practice in South Carolina, who can sign and issue directly.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
County matters. A subpoena directed at someone who is not a party (and not an officer, director, or managing agent of a party) must be issued by the court in the county where that person resides, is employed, or regularly transacts business in person. Issuing it from the wrong county is grounds for the recipient to have the subpoena quashed.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
Give the Other Parties Ten Days’ Notice
Rule 45(a)(4) requires you to serve a copy of the subpoena on every other party in the lawsuit at least ten days before the compliance date set in the subpoena. Serve this notice using the Rule 5(b) methods, which usually means delivery to each party’s attorney of record.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
Skipping the notice or cutting the timeline short can lead the court to strike whatever evidence you obtained, and can expose you to sanctions.
Serve the Subpoena on the Recipient
Once the ten-day notice period runs, you can serve the subpoena on the person or entity it names. Rule 45(b)(1) directs you to the same service methods that apply to a summons and complaint under Rule 4(d):
- Personal delivery to the individual, or leaving the subpoena at their home with someone of suitable age and discretion who resides there.
- Certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, with delivery restricted to the addressee, as permitted under Rule 4(d)(8).
- Voluntary acceptance of service by the person or their attorney under Rule 4(j).
Service on a non-party must happen within the county where the person resides, works, or regularly does business, and that person generally cannot be required to travel more than 50 miles from that county, except to attend a trial anywhere in the state.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
Witness Fees
If your subpoena commands the person to appear (for a deposition, hearing, or trial), you must tender a $25.00 daily attendance fee plus mileage when they arrive. Mileage tracks the state’s official travel reimbursement rate for state officers and employees, which is $0.725 per mile as of January 1, 2026. Subpoenas issued on behalf of the State of South Carolina or one of its agencies do not require tender of these fees.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
A subpoena that only commands document production, without requiring the person to appear, does not trigger the witness fee. The recipient can mail or deliver the documents to the designated location.
Proof of Service
After service, the person who delivered the subpoena files a proof of service with the clerk of the issuing court, stating the date and manner of service and the names of the persons served, certified by the server. SCCA 254 contains a built-in “Declaration of Server” section at the bottom for this.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
What You Can and Cannot Request
The scope of a subpoena duces tecum matches the scope of discovery under Rule 26(b). You can request any non-privileged material relevant to the subject matter of the pending action, including documents, digital files, photographs, and physical objects. The material does not need to be admissible at trial so long as it is reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence.2South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 26 – General Provisions Governing Discovery
Two categories stay off limits regardless of relevance. Attorney-client communications made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice are privileged and cannot be compelled. Work product, meaning documents and materials prepared in anticipation of litigation by a party or their attorney, is generally protected from disclosure. The court must quash or modify a subpoena that seeks privileged or otherwise protected material when no exception or waiver applies.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
Medical Records
Subpoenaing medical records adds a federal layer. Under HIPAA’s Privacy Rule, a provider may release protected health information in response to a subpoena (as distinct from a court order) only if the requesting party shows that reasonable efforts were made to either notify the patient so they can object or obtain a qualified protective order. The provider may disclose only the information specifically described in the subpoena.3U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Court Orders and Subpoenas
In practice, this usually means sending written notice to the patient or their attorney and waiting out any objection period before the provider will release records. Many practitioners file a motion for a qualified protective order at the same time they issue the subpoena, which satisfies the provider’s HIPAA obligations and avoids delays.
If the Recipient Objects
The recipient has 14 days after service to serve written objections on the party or attorney who issued the subpoena. If the compliance deadline falls sooner than 14 days, the recipient can object before that date instead. Once written objections are served, you cannot inspect or copy the requested materials unless you go back to the court and get an order compelling production.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
Common grounds for objection include overbreadth or vagueness, privilege, undue burden on a non-party, and improper issuing county.
The recipient (or any affected party) can also file a motion to quash or modify the subpoena. The court must quash a subpoena that fails to allow reasonable time for compliance, requires a non-party to travel more than 50 miles, demands privileged material, or imposes an undue burden. The court can also modify the subpoena rather than throw it out, for example by narrowing the date range or shifting costs. If compliance would impose significant expense on a non-party, Rule 45 lets the court condition production on the requesting party paying reasonable costs.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena
Documents Held Outside South Carolina
If the person or records you need sit in another state, SCCA 254 is not the right tool. South Carolina has adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act under Title 15, Chapter 47 of the South Carolina Code, which handles the reverse direction: an out-of-state party seeking discovery from someone located in South Carolina submits the foreign subpoena to the clerk of court in the South Carolina county where the target resides or works, and the clerk issues a local subpoena incorporating the foreign one’s terms. The local subpoena is served and enforced under South Carolina’s rules. Any motion to quash, modify, or enforce goes to the South Carolina county where discovery is being conducted, not the originating out-of-state court.4South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 15 Chapter 47 – Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act
Consequences for Ignoring the Subpoena
A person who fails to obey a properly served subpoena without an adequate excuse can be held in contempt of the issuing court.1South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court Rules – Rule 45 – Subpoena Contempt usually starts with the requesting party filing a motion and the court holding a hearing where the non-compliant recipient can explain. Possible outcomes range from monetary sanctions to, in extreme cases, incarceration until compliance, though the more common result is an order compelling production along with an award of attorney’s fees to the party that had to bring the motion.
If you are on the receiving end of a subpoena and think you have a reason not to comply, raise it through the formal objection or motion-to-quash process. Silence is the worst option, since even a strong privilege claim can be waived by failing to assert it.