How to Fill Out California Form SUBP-010: Deposition Subpoena for Business Records

California Form SUBP-010 is the Judicial Council’s deposition subpoena for production of business records, and filling it out correctly means handling three things in order: getting the blank form officially issued, completing the four numbered items on the face of the form, and serving any required consumer or employee notice before the subpoena reaches the custodian. Skip any of those and the custodian has no obligation to release anything.

Get the Form Issued Before You Write on It

SUBP-010 has to be issued before it is filled out. Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 1986, a deposition subpoena can be issued by the court clerk, a judge, or an attorney of record in the case. If you have counsel, your attorney signs the form directly. If you are representing yourself, take a blank SUBP-010 to the clerk’s office and have the clerk sign and stamp it first.¹ You can download the current version from the California Courts website or pick one up at the clerk’s window.

Fill In the Case Caption and Witness

The top of the form takes the standard case information: names of all parties, the court’s name and address, and the case number. You also identify the witness — the custodian of records, or another person qualified to certify the records, at the business holding the documents. Get the custodian’s full name and business address right, because service goes to that person or location.

Below the header, four numbered items do the real work.

Item 1: Choose a Delivery Method

Pick one of three ways the custodian will deliver the records:²

Sealed mail. The custodian puts copies in a sealed inner wrapper labeled with the case caption and date, encloses that in an outer envelope, and mails it to the deposition officer’s office.
Delivery at the witness’s business. The deposition officer goes to the business and receives copies after paying the witness’s reasonable copying costs.
Inspection at the business. The attorney’s representative inspects and copies the original records at the custodian’s office during normal business hours. Under this option the maximum compliance fee is $15 plus any actual cost the witness incurred to retrieve records stored offsite.³

For high-volume productions the on-site inspection option is the cheapest, because the fee is capped. Mail delivery is more expensive but easier to coordinate.

Item 2: Set the Production Date

The compliance date you write in cannot be earlier than 20 days after the subpoena is issued or 15 days after it is served on the witness, whichever falls later.⁴ Build in extra time if you also have to send a consumer or employee notice, since the custodian cannot release anything until those notice windows close. The form itself carries a boldface legend warning the custodian not to release records before the specified date and time.²

Item 3: Describe the Records With Reasonable Particularity

This is the field where subpoenas succeed or fail. Section 2020.410 requires that you describe the records with “reasonable particularity,” either by specifically describing each individual item or by clearly defining each category.⁴ The custodian should be able to identify the documents without guessing what you meant.

“All documents related to John Smith” is too broad. “Checking and savings account statements for account numbers ending in 4521 and 7803, from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025” gives the custodian something to work with. Name the account, the type of record, and a clear date range for every category.

If you want electronically stored information in a specific format — native files with metadata intact, for instance, rather than flattened PDFs — you have to say so here. The statute requires you to “specify the form in which any electronically stored information is to be produced, if a particular form is desired.”⁴ Skip it and the custodian picks the format, which often means scanned images with the original metadata gone.

Item 4: Check the Consumer or Employee Records Box When It Applies

If your subpoena seeks personal records covered by Code of Civil Procedure Section 1985.3 or employment records covered by Section 1985.6, check the appropriate box. That check triggers the notice obligations described next.

Section 1985.3 covers “personal records” held by banks, credit unions, insurance companies, accountants, attorneys, hospitals, and similar entities.⁵ Section 1985.6 covers employment records — payroll data, personnel files, performance evaluations — held by an employer.⁶ If the records fall into either category, you must notify the consumer or employee before the custodian can release anything.

Serve the SUBP-025 Notice Before You Serve the Subpoena

When the consumer or employee box is checked, use Judicial Council Form SUBP-025 (Notice to Consumer or Employee and Objection) to satisfy the notice requirement.⁷ Serve it on the person whose records you are after — personally, by mail to their last known address, or on their attorney of record if they are a party. The timing rules are firm:

Consumer records under Section 1985.3. Notice must reach the consumer at least five days before you serve the subpoena on the custodian. Add the extra time provided by Section 1013 if you serve by mail.⁵
Employment records under Section 1985.6. Notice must reach the employee at least 10 days before the production date and at least five days before you serve the subpoena on the custodian, plus mailing time if applicable.⁶

You also have to deliver proof of service of the SUBP-025 notice to the custodian before the records can be produced. Without that proof the custodian has no obligation to hand anything over.⁶ Missing this step is one of the fastest ways to get the subpoena quashed or the records excluded at trial.

Serve the Subpoena on the Custodian

Once the form is issued, completed, and the consumer or employee notice is handled, serve the subpoena. Code of Civil Procedure Section 2020.220 allows “any person” to serve a deposition subpoena by personal delivery.⁸ If the witness is an individual, deliver the copy to that person. If the witness is an organization, deliver it to any officer, director, custodian of records, or authorized agent or employee. Most litigants hire a professional process server for reliability and clean proof of service, though the statute does not require one.

Along with the subpoena, include a copy of the proof of service of the consumer or employee notice if one applies, so the custodian can see the notice requirements have been met. File a proof of service with the court to create the record that the witness was properly served.

One boundary worth flagging: SUBP-010 only reaches businesses and custodians located in California. Records held by an out-of-state company generally require a subpoena issued in that state, often through the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act procedure.

Expect to Pay Witness Fees

Witnesses are entitled to reimbursement, and what you owe depends on which delivery method you picked on the form. When records are delivered to the deposition officer’s office by sealed mail, the witness can charge reasonable costs including:³

Standard copying at $0.10 per page for documents up to 8½ by 14 inches.
Microfilm copying at $0.20 per page.
Actual reproduction costs for oversize or special-processing documents.
Clerical time up to $24 per hour, billed at $6 per quarter hour or fraction, for locating and preparing the records.
Actual postage.
Whatever a third-party storage company actually charges the witness for offsite retrieval.

When the deposition officer or attorney goes to the business to inspect or copy on site, the total compliance fee is capped at $15 plus any offsite retrieval charges. The witness cannot demand payment before the records are ready, but once they are ready the witness can withhold them until you pay.³

1
California Courts. Order a Witness to Produce Business Records
2
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 2020.430
3
California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1563
4
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2020.410
5
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1985.3
6
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1985.6
7
California Courts. Notice to Consumer or Employee and Objection (SUBP-025)
8
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2020.220