Policy Text
Page 1 of 6 8/03 (REV 6/15)
Criminal and Civil/Administrati ve Subpoena Service on Departmen t Personnel
I. Purpose
The purpose of this General Order is to establish policy and pr ocedure for criminal and
civil/administrative subpoena serv ice of Department personnel v ia the Court Liaison Unit
(CLU).
II. Policy
The CLU will accept or reject s ervice of criminal and civil/adm inistrative subpoenas
pursuant to law and utilize the Subpoena Tracker S ystem (STS) t o facilitate the delivery
of criminal and civil/administ rative subpoenas to Department pe rsonnel as appropriate.
III. Procedures
A. Acceptance and Refusal of Subpoenas
1. Only the named employee in a subpoena, his/her immediate
supervisor or a Department Cour t Liaison Officer (CLO) is
authorized to accept service of a criminal or civil/administrat ive
subpoena requiring the appearan ce of Department personnel. If t he
employee, or his/her supervisor, r eceives the subpoena they sha ll
immediately forward the subpoe na to the CLU for tracking.
a. Subpoenas duces tecum, reques ting only the production of
records, will be served on the Records Bureau at 711 G Street. The party requesting such records will be billed for al l
recoverable charges.
b. The CLU may accept a subpoena delivered in person, via
mail or via email to courtliaison@sacsheriff.com.
c. Subpoena’s delivered via mail or email must include the
name, address, phone number and an email address for the
person issuing the subpoena.
Page 2 of 6 8/03 (REV 6/15) 2. The supervisor or CLO will not accept a subpoena under the
following circumstances:
a. A CLO will not accept a subpoen a if the CLO knows he/she
will not be able to serve the named employee with sufficient
time to allow the employee to comply with the subpoena.
(1) If the supervisor or CLO determines, after acceptance
of a subpoena, that he/she will not be able to deliver the subpoena to the employee within sufficient time
for the named employee to comply with the subpoena, the supervisor or CLO shall notify the server or attorney of such no less than 48 hours prior
to the listed appearance date.
b. The CLU will not accept a civil subpoena for a non-party
peace officer (regardless o f whether or not the subpoena
includes the statutory f ee pursuant to Government Code
section 68097.2, currently set at $275).
(1) Civil subpoenas for non-pa rty peace officers will be
delivered to the Records Bureau at 711 G Street.
(2) Records will forward a copy of the subpoena and the
statutory fee to the Fiscal Unit.
(3) A copy of the subpoena wil l be delivered to the CLU
for service via the STS.
c. The CLU will not accep t a subpoena if the subpoena
concerns a non-law enforcement matter.
B. Court Liaison Unit and E mployee Responsibilities
1. Acceptance by the CL U will occur Monday through Friday, exce pt
holidays.
2. Receipt of subpoenas will be coordinated by the CLU to consider
each employee’s time off.
a. It is each employee’s responsib ility to provide the CLU prio r
notification of approved planned time off. This may be done
by electronic entry into t he STS by the employee or
telephone/email notification to the CLU. Notification must
take place as soon as practic al after the time off has been
approved.
Page 3 of 6 8/03 (REV 6/15) b. In the event of extended time off, an employee must provide
Court Liaison a written dire ctive from their physician
specifically excluding them from court appearances (i.e.
SLS, 4850, FSL, Parental). Copi es of Military Orders are to
be submitted to CLU.
c. It is the employee’s responsib ility to keep contact informat ion
current and available to the CLO.
3. It is incumbent upon the empl oyee who receives a subpoena, i n
conflict with scheduled or emergency time off, to contact the C LO
immediately. In addition, the empl oyee shall notify the party t hat
issued the subpoena of any conf licts with their schedule not
previously provided to Court Liaison and attempt to resolve the
conflict.
4. The CLU will serve subpoenas v ia the employees’ work e-mai l.
5. Employees shall open their department e-mail, and log-in to the
STS at least once daily during their work shifts and check for
subpoena announcements and accep t the delivery of subpoenas.
Successful log-on to the system constitutes service of all subpoenas in the STS for the employee.
6. It is the responsibility o f the CLU supervisor to conduct a monthly
report to evaluate the percentage of served subpoenas. A yearl y
audit, conducted the first month of the fiscal year, will be co mpleted
and forwarded to the Chief of S upport Services for review.
C. Subpoena Cancellation and Reset Procedure
1. Subpoena cancellations or res ets will be emailed automatical ly
from the Subpoena Tracker System (STS) to the employee when
there is ample time