How to Fill Out and Serve a Massachusetts Subpoena Form

A Massachusetts subpoena form is a fill-in court document that orders a person to testify, produce records, or both, and you can download one from Mass.gov or pick up a blank at the clerk’s office of the court hearing your case.¹ The form itself is straightforward. The rules around who signs it, how it must be served, and what you have to hand the witness are where subpoenas fail, so work through each step before you serve anyone.

Pick the Right Form for What You Need

Massachusetts uses three subpoena forms, and the one you choose depends on what you want from the witness.

A testimonial subpoena (sometimes called subpoena ad testificandum) orders a person to appear at a set time and place to testify under oath at a hearing, trial, or deposition.
A subpoena duces tecum orders a person to produce documents, electronically stored information, or tangible items without a personal appearance.
A deposition subpoena orders a person to attend a deposition and can also require them to bring documents or electronic records.

Mass.gov publishes downloadable PDF templates for the standard subpoena and the subpoena duces tecum.¹ Different Trial Court departments (Superior Court, District Court, Probate and Family Court, and others) maintain their own versions, so confirm the form matches the court where your case is pending. Civil subpoenas operate under Massachusetts Rule of Civil Procedure 45; criminal cases use Rule of Criminal Procedure 17, which calls the document a summons for witnesses.

Get the Blank Form Signed First

Under Rule 45(a), a civil subpoena has to be issued by the clerk of court, a notary public, or a justice of the peace.² The issuing official signs the form while it is still blank, and you then fill in the details before serving it. This is different from federal practice: even if a Massachusetts attorney is handling your case, the attorney cannot issue the subpoena. The signature must come from a clerk, notary, or justice of the peace.

If you are representing yourself, the usual route is to walk into the clerk’s office at the courthouse and ask them to sign and seal a blank subpoena. Any notary public in the Commonwealth can also sign one. For criminal cases, Rule 17 provides that a summons for witnesses is issued by the clerk or any person authorized by the General Laws.³

Complete the Form Before Service

Once the blank is signed, fill in every field that identifies the case and the witness.

Case caption: copy the exact case name and docket number from an existing filing so nothing gets transcribed wrong.
Recipient: the witness’s full legal name and a verified residential or business address where they can actually be served.
Date, time, and location: the specific hearing, trial, or deposition date, the time to appear, and the full street address of the courthouse or deposition site.
Description of documents (duces tecum only): a clear, specific list of the records or items to be produced. A demand for “all documents related to the case” invites objections; name the record type, the date range, and any identifiers that pin down what you want.

A misspelled name or wrong address gives the recipient grounds to argue they were never properly served, and a missing docket number can slow processing at the clerk’s office.

Serve the Subpoena on the Witness

A completed subpoena has no legal force until it is formally served on the recipient. Rule 45 allows service by any person who is not a party to the case and is at least 18 years old. Many litigants hire a deputy sheriff or constable because professional servers know the procedural requirements and their word about delivery carries weight if compliance is later disputed.⁴

Civil service is made by delivering a copy directly to the witness in person. Criminal summonses under Rule 17 offer broader options: personal delivery, leaving the document at the witness’s dwelling with a person of suitable age and discretion who lives there, or mailing it to the witness’s last known address.³

How Far a Witness Can Be Required to Travel

Rule 45 caps how far a witness can be forced to travel for depositions and document production, though not for trials or hearings. A Massachusetts resident cannot be required to attend an examination or produce documents at a place more than 50 airline miles from their residence, workplace, or place of business, whichever is closest to the subpoena location. A nonresident served within the Commonwealth can only be compelled to appear in the county where they were served or within 50 airline miles of that location, unless the court orders otherwise.²

Pay the Witness Fees at the Time of Service

Massachusetts law requires the party issuing a civil subpoena to pay the witness a statutory attendance fee of six dollars per day plus mileage of ten cents per mile for the round trip between home and the appearance location. MGL Chapter 262, Section 29 sets those amounts and applies them to appearances before the Superior Court, District Court, Probate and Family Court, Land Court, Housing Court, Juvenile Court, and other tribunals listed in the statute.⁵

Tender the fees when the subpoena is served. Under MGL Chapter 233, Section 6, a court can issue a warrant for a nonattending witness only when the witness’s fees have been “paid or tendered.” Serve a subpoena without them and the witness has a legitimate reason to skip the appearance, and the court is unlikely to enforce the subpoena.⁴ The amounts are small; skipping them can sink the whole effort.

File the Return of Service

After delivering the subpoena, the server completes the return of service, a section on the form recording the date, time, and manner of delivery. That proof is what the court relies on when deciding whether to enforce the subpoena against a witness who does not show up. File the completed return with the clerk of court as soon as possible after delivery. Rule 17 imposes the same return-of-service requirement in criminal cases.³ Without a properly filed return, the judge has no basis to act.

Give the Recipient Enough Time to Comply

A document-only subpoena served on a party to the case must allow at least 30 days for compliance. If the subpoena is directed at a defendant, it cannot require compliance within 45 days of the date the defendant was served with the summons and complaint. A court can shorten or extend these deadlines.²

A person who receives a subpoena duces tecum can object in writing within 10 days of service, or before the compliance deadline if that deadline comes sooner. The written objection has to be served on the party or attorney named on the subpoena and can target the scope of the document request, the format demanded for electronic records, or an inspection demand.² In criminal cases, Rule 17 lets the court quash or modify a witness summons on motion when compliance would be unreasonable or oppressive.³

What Happens If the Witness Ignores It

Under Rule 45(g), the court can hold a person in contempt for failing to obey a subpoena without adequate excuse.² MGL Chapter 233, Section 5 sets the penalties: failure to attend as a witness in a criminal prosecution can bring a fine of up to $200, imprisonment for up to one month, or both. In any other proceeding, the fine caps at $20.⁶

Beyond contempt, MGL Chapter 233, Section 4 makes a nonappearing witness liable to the aggrieved party for damages caused by the failure to attend. Section 6 then authorizes the court to issue a warrant to bring in a witness whose fees were paid or tendered. Rule 17 similarly authorizes a warrant in a criminal case when a witness with actual notice fails to appear.³

Two Situations the Standard Form Does Not Cover

Subpoenaing hospital or clinic records takes more than a completed duces tecum form. Both state law and federal HIPAA privacy rules apply, and certain categories (HIV/AIDS testing, some mental health records, substance abuse treatment records, and genetic testing results) generally cannot be released on a subpoena alone and instead require specific patient authorization or a court order. Sending notice under the Rules of Civil Procedure alone does not meet HIPAA; a separate notice letter to the patient with at least 10 days to object is the recommended practice.

A witness located in another state is also outside the reach of a Massachusetts subpoena form. Massachusetts has not adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, so you must first move the Massachusetts court for a letter rogatory, then have counsel admitted in the witness’s state file it there and obtain a subpoena under that state’s rules. Going the other direction, MGL Chapter 233, Section 45 lets an out-of-state case compel deposition testimony from a witness in Massachusetts, under the same penalties that apply to a witness before a Massachusetts court.⁷

1
Mass.gov. Subpoenas
2
Mass.gov. Civil Procedure Rule 45 – Subpoena
3
Mass.gov. Criminal Procedure Rule 17 – Summonses for Witnesses
4
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Law About Subpoenas
5
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 262 – Fees of Certain Officers
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part III, Title II, Chapter 233, Section 5
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 233 Section 45