Issuing and inspecting subpoenas

Practice Notes

The following Supreme Court Practice notes provide specific directions in relation to the return of subpoenas, and need to be read in conjunction with any direction or protocol issued by the Chief Justice for appearances to take place in the Virtual Courtroom:

• Practice Note SC – GEN 18 - Production of & access to subpoenaed material and returning exhibits and subpoenaed material in civil proceedings

Civil forms

The civil forms in relation to the Return of Subpoena list are:

• Form 24 – Notice to Produce
• Form 25 - Subpoena to attend to give evidence
• Form 26A - Subpoena to produce with subpoena notice and declaration

Criminal forms

The criminal forms in relation to the Return of Subpoena list are:

• Form 74AA - Subpoena to a natural person
• Form 74AB - Subpoena to a corporation for production and for its proper officer to answer questions
• Form 74AC - Subpoena to give evidence
• Form 74AD - Subpoena for production and to give evidence

Producing material to the court and lodging material with the court online

For civil matters, all material produced to the Court should be submitted through NSW Subpoena Response. Once registered, guided on-screen prompts will assist you to upload your response to a subpoena. Subpoenas requiring the production of original material should be produced to the registry.

Documents in response to a Notice to Produce or an Order for Production cannot be uploaded through NSW Subpoena Response. All material produced in response to these requests should be emailed to sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au.

For criminal matters, all material produced to the Court should be emailed to sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au.

You are required to attach a copy of the subpoena form when producing documents.

Do not produce any original material to the registry or Court unless the subpoena asks you to do so.

Always retain a copy of any material produced to the Court.

Return of Subpoena list

Supreme Court Sydney, currently at 9:00am, Court 1A Queens Square Sydney. Appearances in the list are expected to be in-person unless you have received prior approval to appear by AVL. To apply for an AVL apearance, you must email sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au the following details before noon on the day before your appearance:

Subject line: Request to appear by AVL for [date of listing] in [list type] Body of email:

request (legally represented):

request (self- represented):

Case number:
Case name:
Party:	Plaintiff/Defendant/Cross-Claimant/Cross-Defendant/ Applicant/Respondent
Listing date:
List Type:	Court of Appeal/Court of Criminal Appeal/Bails/ Common Law/Equity/Corporations/ Return of Subpoena
[ ] My firm is located at [insert suburb] which is more than 20km away from the Supreme Court registry [ ] I am unwell [ ] Other:
[ ] I reside at [insert suburb] which is more than 20km away from the Supreme Court registry [ ] I am unwell [ ] Other:
All active parties are copied to this email	Yes/No

The registry will email confirmation of your approval to appear by AVL along with the URL you should use for the appearance.

The list is currently published as a PDF spreadsheet at the end of the daily court list which can be found on the NSW Supreme Court Website and is called in numerical order.

Consent orders are dealt with by the Registrar in open court at the listing and not before. If urgent access is required prior to the return date, you may send an email to sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au attention to the Registrar and marked Urgent. The email should include the case number, case name, a copy of signed orders, reasons why the matter is urgent and should state whether all other parties to the case and the subpoena recipient consent to early access. The Registrar will then decide whether access orders will be made in chambers or if the matter will remain listed.

Access orders

Access orders and adjournment orders must be obtained from a Registrar in the Return of Subpoena list.

You must appear to seek access orders for:

• Subpoenas issued in criminal matters.
• Orders for production.
• Notices to produce.
• Productions under UCPR 33.13

For subpoenas in civil matters (excluding probate and adoptions), if proposed access orders are requested on a subpoena:

• The form of the proposed access order should appear against a "packet number" on the daily spreadsheet.
• No appearance is required unless the parties want to object or change the access order.
• If there is no appearance, the proposed, otherwise known as default, access order will be made at the end of the list.
• The default access order only applies to the packet numbers referenced in the daily court list spreadsheet that is published the afternoon before the list. Requests to access late productions and packets that do not appear on the court list need to be made in court before the Registrar and all parties need to be made aware of any access application.

Please refer to Practice Note No. SC Gen 19 for further information.

The Registrar does not deal with consent orders in chambers. All orders are made in court by a Registrar at the return date including any adjournments.