Responding to a
Subpoena
Purpose of Process:
To ensure regulatory compliance when responding to a subpoena while protecting the rights of employees and the company.
Steps in the Process:
- Establish a single contact person in the company to receive
subpoenas (In-house Legal Counsel or HR Director), and
communicate who that person is to the receptionist, the
receiving department, mail room, etc.
- Upon receiving a subpoena, review it. If you are unsure of its
validity, contact the court that issued the subpoena. Make sure
the deposition date is realistic for response time. Generally,
if the request for data provides for less than a two-week
turnaround, call either the attorney's office or the copy center
that served the company and get an extension of time. Likewise,
if the scope of records is unreasonable, request a narrower
focus of records.
- Consider using the Certification of
Personnel Records form. The value of this form is to
document that the record retrieval was thoroughly completed. It
also provides guidance to the individual fulfilling the records
request. The form can be kept on file and referenced if the
accuracy of fulfilling the records request is ever questioned.
- If the subpoena is for business records, you may need to
request the information of another department (e.g. Finance,
Materials, etc.).
- After you have collected the documents (and/or they have arrived from the various departments), prepare the envelopes you need for mailing. Follow the mailing instructions exactly. Sometimes they instruct that the documents be sent in an envelope within an envelope. Make a copy of the documents you send.
Process Tips:
Sometimes a check ($15.00 is common) is included with the subpoena. This is to cover copying and handling costs.
Privacy laws limit access to personnel files. The only people who should have access to the employee's personnel file are 1) the employee, 2) Human Resources, 3) the employee's management, and 4) the courts, and only with a subpoena. Refer also to the Personnel Files process and the sample Personnel File policy.
