Served 123 LLC domesticates and serves out-of-state and tribal-court subpoenas across all 95 Tennessee counties under the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, T.C.A. §§ 24-9-201 through 24-9-207, in force since July 1, 2008. Tennessee added two things to the uniform act that no other state we cover has: a scripted, bold-faced 21-day objection notice that must appear word for word on the face of the subpoena — and a fee-shifting section that lets the court award a wrongly subpoenaed witness their attorney's fees as a judgment entitled to full faith and credit, one that follows the requesting party home. We draft the notice in, file with the correct clerk — Circuit Court Clerk or Clerk & Master — at the statute's $6.00 issuance fee, run the 21-day machine, and serve personally, so the only fee-shifting that ever matters is the kind that runs in your favor.
A national guide published this year prices Tennessee issuance at “typically modest, often ranging from $40.00 to $52.00, vary by county.” The statute disagrees. T.C.A. § 8-21-401 — whose clerk fees apply “uniformly in all courts” — prices issuing a subpoena or subpoena duces tecum at six dollars ($6.00). Where do the forty-something numbers come from? County fee pages — where the “subpoena” line is a bundle that includes the sheriff’s service fee; one county’s $48.00 subpoena line says so outright: it “includes service for one defendant.” That sheriff’s cut is exactly what you do not pay when our own server delivers. We front the statute’s $6.00, confirm any miscellaneous-docket fees and litigation taxes with the clerk, and itemize all of it — so the number on your invoice comes from the code, not from a bundle someone read off the wrong line.
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Tennessee adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act by Public Chapter 908 of 2008, codified at T.C.A. §§ 24-9-201 through 24-9-207 and effective July 1, 2008 — applying even to cases then pending, and deleting the old foreign-deposition statute, § 24-9-103, in its entirety. Under § 24-9-203, the foreign subpoena goes to a clerk of court in the county in which discovery is sought; the request shall not constitute making an appearance; and the clerk shall promptly issue. Two Tennessee originals follow: the subpoena must carry a scripted, bold-faced 21-day objection notice on its face, and § 24-9-207 lets the court shift attorney’s fees — to the witness if the subpoena is quashed, as a full-faith-and-credit judgment, or to the requesting party if it holds. Issuance costs six dollars under § 8-21-401, uniformly in all courts.
Tennessee moved early: Public Chapter 908 (Senate Bill 2624) carried the uniform act into T.C.A. §§ 24-9-201 through 24-9-207 effective July 1, 2008, applying to requests for discovery in cases then pending — and its Section 2 swept the old regime away by deleting § 24-9-103, the prior foreign-deposition statute, in its entirety. The definitions track the uniform text: a subpoena is any document however denominated, and “state” includes federally recognized Indian tribes — Tennessee has none within its borders, but the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians sits minutes across the North Carolina line, and its court’s subpoenas domesticate here like any state’s. The channel is § 24-9-203: submit the foreign subpoena to a clerk of court in the county in which discovery is sought — the county, not the judicial district — where the request “shall not constitute making an appearance,” and the clerk “shall promptly issue” a subpoena incorporating your foreign terms with the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all counsel and unrepresented parties. In practice that means choosing between two clerks — the Circuit Court Clerk and the Clerk & Master of the chancery court — and Rule 45.01 settles who signs: “Every subpoena shall be issued by the clerk,” signed but otherwise in blank. There is no attorney-issuance channel in Tennessee’s civil rules, whatever a federal template suggests.
Then come the two Tennessee originals. First, the notice: under Rule 45.04, a deposition subpoena or a subpoena for production “also must state in prominently displayed, bold-faced text” a scripted warning — reproduced word for word in the section below — that the witness has twenty-one days to object or waive every objection except production costs. Rule 45.07 supplies the machinery behind it: the issuing party must give a non-party witness at least twenty-one (21) days after service to respond, a timely written objection obviates the need for compliance pending court order, the quash standard is unreasonable and oppressive with cost-advancement as the middle path — and the witness who misses the window waives all objections. Twenty-one days, not the fourteen a federal-style template assumes. Second, the closer: § 24-9-207, which exists in no other state’s UIDDA we cover. Quash or modify the subpoena and the court may award the witness “its reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses” — and that order “shall have the status of a judgment entitled to full faith and credit under the Constitution of the United States.” The fee award follows the requesting party home and is enforceable there. Sustain the subpoena, and the court may award fees to the prevailing requesting party instead. Tennessee is the state where a sloppy subpoena literally costs you — and a clean one can pay.
The service and records machinery rounds it out. Under Rule 45.03, a subpoena is served by any person authorized to serve process — by “delivering or offering to deliver” a copy to the witness, or by the witness’s written acknowledgment on the subpoena. Personal delivery only: the Advisory Commission’s own comments record that the rule abolished the old leave-it-at-the-residence practice, and the offer-to-deliver clause means a witness who refuses the papers is served anyway. A no-appearance records subpoena under Rule 45.02 must also require the custodian to swear or affirm the records are authentic and to state whether everything responsive has been produced — a built-in oath — with copies of the subpoena served on all parties under Rule 5 and the production made available to everyone. Hospital and medical custodians get a statutory shortcut: under the Hospital Records as Evidence provisions, § 68-11-402, sealed certified copies can go by mail to the clerk — unless the subpoena carries the statute’s own opt-out clause demanding personal attendance. The economics are statutory and modest: six dollars to issue under § 8-21-401, applied uniformly in all courts, and a $30-per-day civil witness fee under § 24-4-101 that is taxed as costs through the clerk after attendance — advancing it at service is permitted, not required. We run every piece of it, in all ninety-five counties.
Rule 45.04 doesn't describe the objection notice — it dictates it, and requires it in prominently displayed, bold-faced text on the face of every deposition and production subpoena.
A deposition subpoena for testimony or subpoena for production of documentary evidence also must state:
The clock behind the warning is real on both ends. Rule 45.07 obligates the issuing party to give a non-party witness at least twenty-one (21) days after service to respond, a timely objection obviates the need for compliance until the issuing court orders otherwise — and a witness who lets the window lapse waives all objections except production costs. The clerks' own subpoena forms in Davidson and Shelby counties carry this exact text. Ours do too — because in the state with § 24-9-207, a facially defective subpoena is the most expensive kind.
Rule 45 forks every domesticated subpoena into one of two tracks — one built around the scripted 21-day notice and the home-county trio, the other around a built-in oath and a records-by-mail shortcut for medical custodians.
The scripted warning rides the face of the subpoena; the witness gets a minimum twenty-one (21) days after service to respond; a timely objection freezes compliance pending court order — and silence waives everything but costs. A Tennessee resident may be deposed only in the county where the person resides or is employed or transacts his or her business in person, while service itself runs to any place within the state.
Scripted notice · 21-day runway · Objection freezes · Resident home-county trioWhen no appearance is commanded, the subpoena must require the custodian to swear or affirm the records are authentic and to state whether everything responsive has been produced — with copies served on all parties under Rule 5 and the production open to everyone. Hospital and medical custodians may answer by mailing sealed certified copies to the clerk under § 68-11-402 — unless the subpoena carries the statute’s opt-out clause demanding the custodian in person.
Authenticity oath · Rule 5 copies to all parties · Sealed-copies-by-mail optionBoth tracks end at § 24-9-207 — the only fee-shifting section in any UIDDA we cover. Quashed? The court may award the witness reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses, and the order has “the status of a judgment entitled to full faith and credit” — it follows you home. Sustained? Fees can flow to the prevailing requesting party. We draft and serve so the only direction § 24-9-207 ever points is yours.
From intake to affidavit — the right clerk in the right county, the scripted notice on the face, the $6.00 statutory fee fronted, and personal service the rule recognizes.
Upload the out-of-state or tribal-court subpoena with the Tennessee county where the witness or records sit. We verify deposition venue at intake — a Tennessee resident may be deposed only in the county where the person resides or is employed or transacts his or her business in person — so the setting survives Rule 45.04(2).
Ninety-five counties, thirty-one judicial districts, and two clerks per courthouse: the Circuit Court Clerk and the Clerk & Master in chancery. § 24-9-203 files by county — we route to the clerk whose court fits the matter, and Rule 45.01 takes it from there: every subpoena is issued by the clerk, signed but otherwise in blank.
We prepare the Tennessee subpoena on the destination clerk’s own form, mirroring your foreign terms with the § 24-9-203 contact block — and the Rule 45.04 warning in prominently displayed, bold-faced text, word for word. For no-appearance records subpoenas, the authenticity-and-completeness oath language rides along as Rule 45.02 commands.
Our representative files with the clerk at the statutory cost: $6.00 to issue under § 8-21-401, applied uniformly in all courts — plus any miscellaneous-docket fee and state or county litigation taxes where the clerk opens a file, confirmed in advance and itemized. The clerk shall promptly issue; the request is not an appearance; we report the issuance back the day it happens.
For production subpoenas, copies go to every party under Rule 5 — the Advisory Commission calls undisclosed records-pulls ineffective and unethical — and the Rule 45.07 machine is calendared: the witness’s minimum 21-day runway, the objection that freezes compliance, and the waiver that follows silence. Any quash fight lands in the discovery county under § 24-9-206 — with § 24-9-207’s fee-shifting in play.
Service by our Tennessee servers as Rule 45.03 requires — delivering or offering to deliver the subpoena personally, anywhere in the state, with the witness’s written acknowledgment taken where offered. The $30-per-day witness fee runs as § 24-4-101 provides — taxed as costs through the clerk, or advanced when strategy favors it — and you receive a filing-ready affidavit of service (PDF) for your originating court.
Before July 1, 2008, an out-of-state subpoena had no force in Tennessee — discovery ran through the old § 24-9-103 machinery, commission-era practice the act deleted in its entirety.
The complete framework — the act, the clerk channel, the scripted notice, the 21-day machine, and the fee statutes — each linked from the sections above.
| Authority | Subject | Key requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Public Chapter 908 (2008) | Adoption | Enacted T.C.A. §§ 24-9-201 through 24-9-207 effective July 1, 2008, applying to cases then pending — and deleted the old foreign-deposition statute, § 24-9-103, in its entirety |
| § 24-9-202 | Definitions | A subpoena is a document, however denominated, commanding testimony, production, or inspection; “state” includes DC, Puerto Rico, the USVI, federally recognized Indian tribes, and the territories |
| § 24-9-203 | Clerk Channel | Foreign subpoena to a clerk of court in the county in which discovery is sought; the request shall not constitute making an appearance; the clerk shall promptly issue, incorporating the foreign terms with all counsel and party names, addresses, and telephone numbers |
| § 24-9-204 + -205 | Rules Welded On | Service runs under the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure relative to service of process, and depositions, production, and inspection comply with the rules relative to discovery |
| § 24-9-206 | Motions Venue | Protective orders and applications to enforce, quash, or modify are submitted to the court in the county in which discovery is to be conducted |
| § 24-9-207 | Fee-Shifting — the Tennessee Original | On a quash or modification, the court may award the subpoenaed party reasonable attorney's fees and expenses — a final award has the status of a judgment entitled to full faith and credit; if the subpoena is sustained, fees may go to the prevailing party |
| Rule 45.01 | Issuance | Every subpoena shall be issued by the clerk — signed but otherwise in blank, completed by the requesting party before service; Tennessee's civil rules contain no attorney-issuance channel |
| Rule 45.02 | Records + the Oath | A no-appearance production subpoena must require the custodian to swear or affirm the materials are authentic and to state whether everything responsive has been produced — with copies served on all parties under Rule 5 and the production available to every party |
| Rule 45.03 | Service | Service by any person authorized to serve process, made by delivering or offering to deliver a copy to the witness — or by the witness's written acknowledgment on the subpoena; the old leave-at-the-residence practice is abolished |
| Rule 45.04 | The Scripted Notice + Venue | Deposition and production subpoenas must carry the 21-day objection warning in prominently displayed, bold-faced text — and a resident may be deposed only in the county where the person resides or is employed or transacts his or her business in person |
| Rule 45.07 + 45.08 | The 21-Day Machine + Duties | A minimum twenty-one (21) days after service for non-party witnesses to respond; timely objection obviates compliance pending court order; silence waives all objections except costs; the quash standard is unreasonable and oppressive — with usual-course production, ESI protections, and full privilege clawback — and disobedience or a refusal to be sworn may be punished as contempt under Rule 45.06 |
| § 8-21-401 + § 24-4-101 + § 68-11-402 | Costs + Custodians | Six dollars to issue a subpoena, uniformly in all courts; $30 per day for civil witnesses, taxed as costs through the clerk after attendance with advancement permitted; and the sealed-certified-copies-by-mail route for hospital records custodians — displaceable only by the statute's own opt-out clause |
Tennessee's trial courts sit in thirty-one judicial districts, but § 24-9-203 files by county — ninety-five of them, each with a Circuit Court Clerk and, for chancery, a Clerk & Master. The fee figures above come from the statutory schedule, which applies uniformly in all courts; miscellaneous-docket fees and state and county litigation taxes vary with how a given clerk's office books the submission, and we confirm each county's intake practice before filing.
A scripted notice nobody prints, a fee everyone misquotes, an attorney channel that doesn't exist, and a fee-shifting statute that makes every mistake expensive — each failure below is live on a competitor page or built into the rules.
Rule 45.04 requires the 21-day objection warning word for word, in prominently displayed, bold-faced text, on deposition and production subpoenas — the Nashville and Memphis clerks print it on their own forms. A home-state template doesn't. We script it in, verbatim, every time.
A current national guide prices Tennessee issuance at “$40.00 to $52.00, vary by county.” The statute says six dollars, uniformly in all courts — the county numbers are sheriff-service bundles, one of which says so on its face. We front the statute's $6.00 and serve with our own people.
A national guide says Tennessee subpoenas may issue from “an attorney admitted to practice in that court” — federal-rule language. Rule 45.01 is five words long on the point: “Every subpoena shall be issued by the clerk.” We file with the clerk, because that is the only door.
Federal-style templates assume a 14-day objection window. Tennessee's Rule 45.07 gives non-party witnesses a minimum twenty-one (21) days after service — and an objection clock of the same length, with waiver for the witness who misses it. We run Tennessee's clock, not the template's.
The Advisory Commission calls the quiet records-pull — a subpoena served on a custodian without copies to opposing counsel — ineffective and unethical. Rule 45.02 requires copies to all parties and open access to whatever is produced. We serve the copies before the custodian, every time.
§ 24-9-207 is the only fee-shifting section in any UIDDA we cover: a quashed subpoena can cost you the witness's attorney's fees as a full-faith-and-credit judgment that follows you home. We draft to the rules and serve to the letter — so the fee-shifting section only ever points away from you.
End-to-end handling of the only UIDDA in America with built-in fee-shifting — drafted to the scripted notice, filed for six dollars, served personally.
The Rule 45.04 warning in bold-face on the face, the § 24-9-203 contact block, and the authenticity oath on records subpoenas — on the destination clerk's own form.
The statutory issuance line under § 8-21-401 — with any miscellaneous-docket fees and litigation taxes confirmed against the county's intake practice and itemized.
Circuit Court Clerk or Clerk & Master — ninety-five counties, thirty-one districts, one correct office per order, identified before anything is drafted.
Rule 5 copies to every party before the custodian, the minimum 21-day runway honored, and the objection-and-waiver clock tracked from service.
Delivery or offer-to-deliver by Tennessee servers anywhere in the state — with written acknowledgment taken where offered, and the witness fee handled as § 24-4-101 provides.
Issuance reported same-day, deposition venue verified against the home-county trio, and a filing-ready affidavit of service (PDF) for your originating court.
Every discovery subpoena the act reaches — a document however denominated — drafted with the scripted notice and served personally.
Records and ESI with the authenticity oath built in, Rule 5 copies to every party, and the 21-day objection clock calendared from service.
Testimony set where Rule 45.04(2) allows — the resident's resides-employed-transacts county — with the bold-face notice on the face.
Combined commands mirrored from your foreign subpoena with the full contact block — and both notice regimes satisfied on one document.
The § 68-11-402 sealed-copies-by-mail route run correctly — or displaced with the statute's own opt-out clause when you need the custodian in the room.
Out-of-state counsel and the teams behind them — anyone who needs a Tennessee witness without learning two clerks, one scripted notice, and a fee-shifting statute.
Out-of-state litigators reaching Tennessee witnesses and custodians — the notice scripted in, the clock run on twenty-one days, § 24-9-207 pointed the right way.
Records from the hospital systems anchored in Nashville and Memphis — the sealed-copies route, the opt-out clause, and the authenticity oath all handled.
Discovery from the logistics, music-industry, and manufacturing employers from Memphis to the Tri-Cities — served personally, statewide.
Subpoenas from federally recognized tribal courts — including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians just across the line — domesticated through the same clerk channel.
One vendor for the chain — venue check, dual-clerk routing, scripted notice, $6.00 filing, Rule 5 copies, personal service, affidavit — with issuance reported same-day.
Agencies reselling Tennessee coverage — we run the clerk filings and Rule 45 service under your brand's timeline.
We file and serve in every Tennessee county — Memphis on the river to Mountain City in the corner, and the ninety-three in between.
That’s all 95 — the most counties of any state east of the Mississippi — across thirty-one judicial districts, each courthouse staffed by a Circuit Court Clerk and a Clerk & Master. § 24-9-203 files by county, and Rule 45.05 lets the issued subpoena be served at any place within the state, so one correctly chosen clerk covers a witness anywhere from Bristol to the Delta. We route every order to the right office — yes, including Lynchburg — and the statutory issuance fee is the same six dollars at every counter.
Straight answers — with the statute and rules linked — on domesticating and serving an out-of-state or tribal-court subpoena in Tennessee under T.C.A. §§ 24-9-201 through 24-9-207.
Send the originating state or tribal court, the Tennessee county where the witness or records sit, and your subpoena PDF. We draft with the scripted 21-day notice, file with the right clerk at the $6.00 statutory fee, serve the Rule 5 copies, deliver personally anywhere in the state, and return a filing-ready affidavit — all 95 counties.
Served 123 LLC is a process service and litigation-support company, not a law firm, and does not provide legal advice. Clerk filings and service are performed administratively at the direction of the client and its counsel. Cost figures are cited from T.C.A. § 8-21-401 and § 24-4-101 and are subject to legislative change; miscellaneous-docket fees and state and county litigation taxes vary with each clerk's intake practice and are confirmed before every filing.
