Subpoenaed for Records in Florida: What a Non-Party Has to Produce

The envelope holds a subpoena with your company's name on it and a list of records that runs two pages: every invoice, contract, email, and payment record touching a customer you stopped working with two years ago. There is no deposition date. There is a deadline, an address where copies should be sent, and a line saying nobody needs to appear if the documents arrive on time. The lawsuit is between two other parties, and until this morning you did not know it existed.

This is the most common subpoena in Florida civil cases, and the one recipients handle worst, because it looks like paperwork. Florida gives the recipient specific protections, including one that can stop the production with a single written objection, and most people never learn they exist.

What is a subpoena for production without a deposition?

Florida's civil rules allow a party to obtain documents from a person outside the case without taking testimony. Before the subpoena can be issued, the party seeking the records must give notice to every other party in the lawsuit and wait a set period; if any party objects in time, the subpoena is on hold until that objection is resolved. Only after that does it reach you. The subpoena must identify the documents, may require production only in the county where the custodian lives, where the records are kept, or where the custodian usually does business, and may give you the option of mailing or delivering copies instead of appearing anywhere. It commands documents and nothing more. Nobody can use it to question you.

Does a written objection really stop the production?

Under this rule, yes. If the person served objects at any time before the documents are produced, the documents are not produced under the rule, and the party who wants them has to use the deposition rules instead, usually by subpoenaing a records custodian to appear with the documents. That moves the dispute from your mailroom to a process a judge supervises, and it usually opens a negotiation about scope. The objection should be in writing, delivered to the lawyer who issued the subpoena before the deadline, and specific about what is wrong. Silence past the deadline is noncompliance with a court command, and it invites a motion for contempt.

Which requests can a non-party narrow or refuse?

Most of the overreaching ones. Demands for "any and all" documents over an unlimited period are the usual starting point, and courts give real weight to burden when the person carrying it has no stake in the case. Privileged material stays protected: communications with your own lawyers, and in Florida, confidential communications between an accountant and a client. Trade secrets, pricing, and customer lists can be withheld or produced only under a confidentiality order. Florida's constitution also protects financial privacy, and judges generally require the party seeking a non-party's private financial information to show a real need for it before ordering it turned over.

What if the records belong to your customers, patients, or employees?

Then the subpoena creates duties in two directions. Medical practices cannot release patient records on a subpoena alone; state and federal privacy rules first require proof that the patient was notified, a signed authorization, or a court order. Accountants hold a privilege that belongs to the client, not the firm. Employers hold personnel and payroll files their employees expect to stay private. Releasing records you were not permitted to release can create liability to the person they describe. Where the law allows, the person whose information is sought should be told, because that person may have stronger grounds to object than you do.

Who pays for the search and the copies?

The rule allows a non-party to condition the preparation of copies on advance payment of the reasonable cost. For anything beyond a small file, raise cost before the work begins, in writing. Large electronic requests can require hours of staff time or an outside vendor, and courts can narrow the request, shift the expense, or both. The other lever is scope: an agreement limiting the date range, the people whose files are searched, and the search terms often cuts the work to a fraction of its size, and opposing counsel usually prefers that agreement to a hearing.

What if they want your testimony too?

Sometimes they do. A deposition subpoena can follow a records subpoena, especially after an objection sends the requesting party to the deposition rules. At that point the task changes from producing records to giving sworn testimony, and preparation matters most. Your own lawyer reviews what you produced, walks you through the questions each side is likely to ask, and attends with you to object and keep the questioning within its proper limits. There is also a step that can make the deposition unnecessary. Before the date, your lawyer can speak candidly with the lawyer who issued the subpoena about what you actually know. Lawyers subpoena non-parties hoping for helpful testimony, and one who learns that your account would not help, or would hurt the case, may decide not to take the deposition at all.

What should you do in the first week?

Calendar the deadline the day the subpoena arrives. Read the definitions and instructions, which often expand the list more than the list itself. Preserve what it describes, including company data on personal phones, and suspend automatic deletion. Work out what you have and where it lives. Do not call either side's lawyer yourself to talk through what you remember; a friendly conversation is an unrecorded interview, and a candid exchange about your testimony belongs in your own lawyer's hands. Then decide among the three real options: object, negotiate a narrower production, or comply. If records are produced, review them first for privileged material, and send them with a log of what went out and, where requested, a records custodian's certification, which can spare you a trip to court later to authenticate them in person.

Salomon Smith PLLC represents businesses, professionals, and individuals served with subpoenas in lawsuits they are not part of, from the first objection through production and, when testimony is sought, through deposition preparation and representation. If a records subpoena has arrived, call (305) 297-1018 for a free consultation before the deadline passes, or learn more about our business litigation practice.

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice.