Significant Amendments to the Rule Governing Subpoenas in Federal Court

On December 1, 2013, significant amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 took effect. Tony Lathrop of the Litigation Blog has posted a detailed summary of the revisions. They include, among other things:

• Changing the issuing court for subpoenas to the court where the action is pending (previously, the issuing court had varied depending on the purpose of the subpoena);
• Clarifying that the limit on compelling a person to travel more than 100 miles to attend trial applies to parties and party officers;
• Explicitly authorizing the enforcement court (where the witness is located) to transfer subpoena-related motions to the issuing court (where the action is pending).

A redlined version of the amendments is available in Appendix C to the September 2012 Summary of the Report of the Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (starting at page 119 of the Adobe file).