How to Fill Out and Serve a California CR-125 Subpoena

The California CR-125 subpoena is a court order used in criminal and juvenile cases to compel someone to appear at a hearing, produce documents, or both. To use it, you fill in the case caption, name the witness in Item 1, check the boxes in Item 2 that describe what you want the person to do, list the hearing details, and get the form signed by a judge or other authorized issuer. Then someone other than you personally serves a copy on the witness and completes the proof of service on page two.¹

The form’s full title is “Order to Attend Court or Provide Documents: Subpoena/Subpoena Duces Tecum.” It doubles as JV-525 in juvenile proceedings and is available from the California Courts website or any superior court clerk’s office.² It applies only to criminal and juvenile matters. Civil lawsuits, small claims, and family court cases use different subpoena forms, and the form itself states it cannot be used to obtain juvenile court records.¹

Who Can Issue One

Penal Code 1326 identifies who has authority to sign and issue a criminal subpoena: magistrates and their clerks, district attorneys and their investigators, public defenders and their investigators, the clerk of the trial court, and the defendant’s attorney of record. If you are a defendant representing yourself, the court clerk must issue blank subpoenas to you at no charge, as many as you need.³

Filling Out the Form

The top of page one is the caption block. Complete these fields:

Attorney or Party Without Attorney: your full name, California State Bar number if you are an attorney, mailing address, phone number, and email.
Attorney For: the name of the party you represent. Self-represented defendants write their own name.
Superior Court of California, County of: the county where the case is pending, plus the courthouse street address, mailing address, city, zip code, and branch name.
Case Name and Case Number: copied exactly from existing case filings.

Item 1 names the person or business being ordered to appear or produce records. Use the witness’s legal name or the business’s official name.¹

Item 2 has five checkboxes describing what the court is ordering:

Box 2a, Attend the hearing: requires the person to show up in court as a witness.
Box 2b, Attend and bring items: the witness must appear and bring specific documents or items listed in 2c.
Box 2c, Provide items to the court: describe each document or record. Vague descriptions give the recipient grounds to object.
Box 2d, Custodian of Records must attend: check this when someone other than the named person maintains the requested records and that custodian needs to appear personally.
Box 2e, Mail-in option: lets the recipient deliver the listed items to the court within five days of being served instead of appearing in person, provided they follow the instructions in Item 5.

Item 3 records the hearing date, time, department, room number, and courthouse name and address. Item 4 identifies you as the person who requested the subpoena, with your name, phone number, and address. A judge or other authorized issuer then signs and dates the form at the bottom of page one.¹

When You Are Demanding Documents

Extra rules kick in when CR-125 is used to compel business records, such as bank statements, medical files, or phone records. Penal Code 1326 requires that any subpoena directed at a custodian of records follow the delivery procedure in Evidence Code 1560.³ The custodian delivers true copies of the records to the court clerk in sealed envelopes, along with a completed Declaration of Custodian of Records. In a criminal case, delivery must happen within five days of the custodian receiving the subpoena. The sealed records stay unopened until the judge directs otherwise at the hearing, with all parties present.⁴

If you checked box 2e, the custodian mails a copy of the declaration, without copies of the records themselves, to the person named in Item 4.¹

One important limit: in a criminal case, a subpoena duces tecum cannot force a business to hand over records about someone other than the subpoenaed entity except through this formal custodian process.³ You cannot use a subpoena aimed at one business to fish through records about unrelated people.

Serving the Subpoena

Service of a criminal subpoena must be personal. Someone hand-delivers a copy to the witness. Almost anyone can do it, with one exception: if you are the defendant, you cannot serve the subpoena yourself. Common choices are a registered process server, a friend or family member who is at least 18 and not involved in the case, or a peace officer. A peace officer given the subpoena to serve must do so within their county and promptly file a written return noting the time and place of service.⁵

Different rules apply when the witness is a peace officer, such as the arresting officer. Instead of personal delivery, you can serve two copies on the officer’s immediate supervisor or a designated agent, or send it electronically in counties that participate in that system.⁵ A supervisor who receives the subpoena fewer than five working days before the hearing can refuse it if they are not reasonably sure they can get it to the officer in time.

When the witness is a minor, service goes to the minor’s parent, guardian, or whoever has care and control of the child. If the minor is 12 or older, service must also be made on the minor directly.⁵

Completing the Proof of Service

Page two of CR-125 is a proof of service section that the server completes, not the party who requested the subpoena. The server records the date, time, and address of service and the name of the person served. After completing service, the server mails or delivers a copy of the completed proof of service to the person listed in Item 4.¹

If service failed, the server checks a box explaining why: the person was unknown at that address, had moved with no forwarding address, the address was in a different county, or the server could not complete service before the hearing date. The server then signs under penalty of perjury, confirming they are at least 18 and not a party. Registered process servers include their county of registration and registration number.¹

Keep the completed proof of service. You will need it if the witness fails to appear and you want the judge to take enforcement action.

What Happens If the Witness Ignores It

A witness who disobeys a properly served CR-125 or refuses to be sworn or testify can be punished for contempt of court under Penal Code 1331.⁶ The form itself warns that the judge can impose fines, order jail time, or issue an arrest warrant.¹

The statute’s key phrase is “good cause.” A witness who can show a legitimate reason for missing the hearing, such as a medical emergency, defective service, or never having received the subpoena at all, has a defense against contempt. That is why careful, documented service matters. Without a properly completed proof of service, the court has no basis to enforce the order.

Timing and Specificity

Describe the documents you want as precisely as possible in Item 2c. Asking for “all records” invites a motion to quash for being overbroad. Something like “all call detail records for phone number (xxx) xxx-xxxx from January 1, 2025 through March 31, 2025” is harder to challenge and easier for the custodian to locate.

Serve well before the hearing. The Penal Code does not set a single minimum number of days for criminal subpoena service the way civil rules do, but a supervisor can refuse to accept service on a peace officer witness if fewer than five working days remain before the hearing.⁵ Give yourself at least two weeks when you can. That cushion covers failed first attempts, hard-to-find witnesses, and the five-day window custodians have to deliver records in criminal cases.⁴

Self-represented defendants should remember two things at once: the clerk must give you blank subpoenas at no cost, and you still need someone else to handle service, because defendants cannot serve their own subpoenas.³ A friend or relative who is 18 or older and not involved in the case can serve it at no charge, or you can hire a registered process server.

1
Judicial Council of California. CR-125/JV-525 Order to Attend Court or Provide Documents For Subpoena Duces Tecum (Criminal and Juvenile)
2
Judicial Branch of California. Order to Attend Court or Provide Documents: Subpoena/Subpoena Duces Tecum (CR-125)
3
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1326
4
California Legislative Information. California Evidence Code 1560
5
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1328
6
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1331