Service of Subpoenas When the CSU is a Party

California State University, Sacramento, employees are unable to respond to subpoenas where the campus or CSU is a party to the proceeding. Instructions for completing service of subpoenas where the CSU is a party to the proceeding are available from the CSU Office of General Counsel.

Service of Subpoenas for University Records

Subpoenas for University records must be served in person. We are unable to respond to subpoenas sent by email, USPS, UPS, FedEx, or fax.

Subpoenas are accepted Monday through Friday during normal business hours:

• Academic Year Hours: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
• Summer Hours: 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Subpoenas for University records should be addressed to:

• "Custodian of Records for California State University, Sacramento"

Subpoenas for University records must be served in person to the following campus location:

• Department Name: Vice President for Administration/CFO
• Building Name and Room Number: Sacramento Hall, Suite 272
• Physical Address: 6000 J Street, Sacramento, California 95819-6038

Subpoenas for University records are not accepted at other offices on campus. Process servers attempting to serve a subpoena elsewhere on campus will be sent to the office above.

Witness Fees

Subpoenas for University records must be accompanied by a check for $15.00 made payable to one of the following:

• Sacramento State
• California State University, Sacramento

Other Requirements

Subpoenas for University records must include the following elements in order for us to accept service:

• A wet signature of the issuing attorney on the Subpoena. This may be an electronic facsimile of the attorney's wet signature, or it may be signed via Docu-sign or Adobe Acrobat Sign. It may not be typed or a signature style font. Types signatures with an /s/ or /S/ are also not acceptable.
• On the Notice to Consumer or Employee and Objection, a service list must be included and a relationship established between the person(s) on the service list and the person whose records are being sought.
  • For example, if records are being sought for Jane Doe, and the person on the service list, John Smith, is the attorney for Jane Doe, this must be noted with a line such as "John Smith, attorney for Jane Doe."
• Date of production must be at least 15 days from the date of service. Please ensure that the appropriate lenght of time is taken into account when preparing and serving a subpoena.

Record Requests (non-PRA requests)

For records requests, please email the records request and the applicable signed authorization to prarequest@csus.edu. Please do not include any social security numbers in this transmission.

Records Delivery

Responsive records for an appropriately-served subpoena or non-PRA records request will be delivered via secure file transfer. Responsive records will not be made by any other method.

Recipients will receive two emails: one with a link to the records, and one with a password necessary to access the records.

For Personal Appearance of a University Employee

Subpoenas addressed to a particular person requesting personal appearance to testify or for deposition as a witness must per personally served and can only be accepted by that person. Others on campus are not authorized to accept service on the person's behalf.

Subpoenas for the personal appearance of a University employee regarding something they perceived at work or for a personal matter must be personally served. As with subpoenas for University records, subpoenas for personal appearnace cannot be accepted via email, USPS, UPS, FedEx, or fax.

In the following circumstances only, service of an appearance subpoena may be achieved by delivering two copies of the subpoena to the Vice President for Administration/CFO (Sacramento Hall 272 or the Public Records Coordinator) office following the processes set forth above:

• When a University peace officer is being subpoenaed to testify about an event or transaction that he or she witnessed or investigated in his or her role as a peace officer.
• When a University employee is being subpoenaed to testify about expertise gained during the course of his or her duties.

Witness Fees

Subpoenas for personal appearance of a University Employee must include a check for witness fees in the amount of $275.00 made payable to one of the following:

• Sacramento State
• California State University, Sacramento

If you have questions regarding service of a subpoena, please contact the Public Records Coordinator at prarequest@csus.edu.

Service of Lawsuits

Against the University

A lawsuit (i.e., a summons and complaint) that names the California State University, the CSU Board of Trustees, and/or an individual CSU campus as a defendant must be served on the California State University’s Office of General Counsel. Instructions for completing such service are available from the CSU Office of General Counsel.

California State University, Sacramento, employees do not have the authority to accept service of lawsuits against the University. Employees who are approached by a process server attempting to serve a lawsuit upon the University will not accept service and will instead direct the process server to the Office of General Counsel.

Against an Individually Named Defendant

Individually named defendants in a lawsuit may be served at their work location on campus. If an individually named defendant is away from his or her work location when service is attempted, the process server will be advised to return at another time. Others on campus are not permitted to accept service on the employee's behalf.