Electronically stored information (ESI) and paper documents are crucial to a case as they generally are the only contemporaneous evidence relating to a dispute. When a party seeks a third party's relevant ESI and paper documents by issuing a document subpoena, the third party generally must produce responsive, nonprivileged documents or seek court relief. Similarly, when a party seeks a nonparty's testimony at a deposition, hearing, or trial, the party must serve the nonparty with a subpoena, and the nonparty must either comply or seek court relief. (FRCP 45.)

This Subpoena Toolkit (Federal) offers resources to assist counsel when:

For resources that provide guidance to parties when they seek documents from other parties via requests for the production of documents (RFP) under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34, see Requesting Parties: Requests for Production of Documents Toolkit (Federal) and Responding Parties: Requests for Production of Documents Toolkit (Federal).

For a collection of resources that assist counsel with reviewing a third party's document production in response to a subpoena, see Requesting Parties: Requests for Production of Documents Toolkit (Federal): Reviewing the Responding Party's Written Responses, Document Production, and Privilege Log.

For a collection of resources that assist counsel with reviewing and producing responsive, nonprivileged documents, see Responding Parties: Requests for Production of Documents Toolkit (Federal): Reviewing and Producing Documents and Protecting Privileged and Other Sensitive Content.