How UIDDA Works in Texas: Subpoena Steps, Service, and Fees

A UIDDA subpoena in Texas lets you depose a witness or obtain documents located in Texas for a lawsuit pending in another state, without hiring Texas counsel to file a separate action. Under the amendments to Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 201, you take the subpoena issued by your home-state court to the district clerk in the Texas county where the witness lives, works, or keeps the records, and the clerk issues a Texas subpoena that mirrors it.¹ No judge reviews the request. No hearing is held. The clerk treats it as an administrative filing.

The Three-Step Process

Start with the foreign subpoena, meaning the one issued by the court where your case is pending. Present it to the district clerk in the correct Texas county. The clerk then issues a Texas subpoena incorporating the terms of the original, and that local subpoena carries the same force as any subpoena issued in a Texas lawsuit.

County selection matters. If you file with a clerk in a county where the witness neither lives nor works and where the records aren’t kept, the clerk has no authority to act. You’ll start over in the right county. Once the Texas subpoena issues, Texas procedural rules take over for everything that follows: service, objections, protective orders, and enforcement are governed by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure rather than the rules of your home state.

What the Texas Subpoena Must Include

The Texas subpoena needs to track the foreign subpoena closely. Scope of discovery, documents requested, time and place for compliance, and any conditions or limitations in the original all carry over. If the foreign subpoena commands a deposition on specific topics, the Texas version should list those same topics. Mismatches between the two give the witness room to challenge compliance.

The subpoena must also list every attorney of record in the out-of-state case. For unrepresented parties, put the full name, address, and phone number on the document. Leaving a party off this list can delay the process or supply grounds for a motion to quash.

Serving the Subpoena

Texas Rule 176.5 allows service by a sheriff, constable, or any person who is at least 18 and not a party to the case.² Private process servers are usually faster than waiting on a constable’s schedule, but either option works. Service can happen anywhere in Texas.

Proper service requires two things at the same moment: physically delivering the subpoena to the witness and tendering any fees the witness is owed by law.³ Handing over the paper without the witness fee is incomplete service, and it will haunt any later effort to enforce the subpoena.

Notice Timing

Texas doesn’t set a specific day count for deposition notice. The rule requires a “reasonable time” before the deposition takes place.⁴ There’s a practical backstop built into the rules: if the witness objects to the time or place and files a motion by the third business day after receiving notice, the deposition is automatically stayed until a court rules. Most practitioners provide at least 10 to 14 days to avoid disputes.

Document-only subpoenas served on nonparties follow a different timeline. The notice and subpoena must reach the nonparty and all other parties a reasonable time before the response is due, and no later than 30 days before the end of any applicable discovery period in the underlying case.⁵

Witness Fees and Travel

Texas entitles a subpoenaed witness to $10 for each day of attendance at court or a deposition.⁶ The amount is small, but it’s a hard statutory requirement, and the fee must be tendered at the time of service rather than afterward.

A witness who lives outside the county where the proceeding takes place is also entitled to compensation for travel days at the same $10 daily rate, calculated for each day reasonably spent getting to and from the location.⁶ These fees are separate from what you pay the constable or process server, and separate from the clerk’s filing fee. Budget for all three.

Document-Only Subpoenas

Not every UIDDA request involves live testimony. Rule 205.3 lets you subpoena documents and tangible things from a nonparty without scheduling a deposition. This works well for business records, employment files, or other paperwork from a Texas company when you don’t need anyone’s testimony.

The subpoena must describe the items with reasonable specificity, either by individual item or by category, and set a reasonable time and place for production.⁵ If you want testing or sampling of physical items, describe exactly how the testing will work. Vague requests invite objections.

Two obligations catch requesting parties off guard. First, you must reimburse the nonparty’s reasonable costs of production, including copying, staff time, and expenses for pulling records from storage.⁵ Second, once you receive the documents, you must make them available for inspection by every other party in the case on reasonable notice and provide copies at that party’s expense. You don’t get to hoard what you find.

Medical and mental health records add another layer. If the subpoena targets medical records belonging to someone who isn’t a party to the suit, you must serve the person whose records are being sought with a copy of the notice. HIPAA requirements may also apply, potentially calling for a patient authorization or a qualified protective order before a provider will release records.

How a Witness Can Push Back

A UIDDA subpoena is not immune from challenge because it originated out of state. Witnesses and affected parties have two main tools.

A person commanded to produce documents can serve written objections on the requesting party before the compliance deadline. Once served, the person doesn’t have to produce anything covered by the objection unless a court orders otherwise.⁷ It’s a strong tool for nonparties who receive overbroad or burdensome requests.

For broader protection, anyone affected by the subpoena can file a motion for a protective order before the compliance deadline. The motion can be filed either in the court where the original action is pending or in a district court in the Texas county where the subpoena was served.⁷ Filing the motion pauses the obligation to comply with the disputed portion until the court rules. Common grounds include undue burden, requests for privileged information, and compliance windows that are unreasonably short.

Enforcement and the Fee Affidavit

If a properly served witness ignores a UIDDA subpoena, the requesting party can ask the court to hold the witness in contempt. The contempt finding can come from either the court that issued the subpoena or a district court in the county where the subpoena was served, and penalties include fines, confinement, or both.²

Here’s the trap. Before a court will impose a fine or issue an attachment order against a non-compliant witness, the requesting party must file an affidavit proving that all witness fees required by law were paid or tendered at the time of service.² If the $10 fee was skipped or the payment wasn’t documented, enforcement leverage is gone. The subpoena was technically defective from the moment it was served, and no amount of later briefing fixes that. Tender the fee at service, document it, and keep the proof.

1
Texas Judicial Branch. Texas Supreme Court Order Amending Texas Rules of Civil Procedure
2
Texas Judicial Branch. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Effective March 1, 2026
3
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 176.5 – Service
4
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 199 – Depositions Upon Oral Examination
5
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 205.3 – Production of Documents Without Deposition
6
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 22.001 – Witness Fee
7
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 176.6 – Response