Served 123 LLC domesticates and serves out-of-state subpoenas across all 254 Texas counties — and Texas is the one state where we run two tracks. The new clerk channel under Rule 201.3, Texas's modified UIDDA, took effect August 31, 2025; it works, and we file it daily. But county intake remains improvised — no standard forms, letterhead accepted in some counties and not others, and a filing fee equivalent to the cost of a new lawsuit. So unless you ask for the clerk channel, we default to the route Texas ran for decades and Rule 176.4 still powers: your court's authorization plus the Rule 205 notice, and a subpoena issued immediately by an authorized Texas issuer — no counter, no case file, no filing fee. That track is built for speed and the cooperative compliance that makes up most domestication work; when a witness is likely to fight, the clerk channel is the track with enforcement teeth, and we pair them on one order when the stakes call for it. Either way, the same spine binds the work: the 150-mile range limit, the 10-day records notice, the $10.00 witness fee tendered at service, and proof built to Rule 176.8(b)'s sworn-tender standard.
Every guide published since August 2025 celebrates the same headline: Texas finally adopted the UIDDA. Here is the part they leave out. When practitioners surveyed the district clerks in Bexar, Travis, Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin counties after the rule took effect, not one had created a UIDDA form — some started, then decided against it. A few counties accept a styled letterhead instead of a new filing; most do not, and the practice is not applied uniformly across Texas. And whatever the format, the clerk channel still collects a filing fee equivalent to the cost of filing a new lawsuit — several hundred dollars, set county by county — even though the statute prices the act of issuing a subpoena at $8.00. The Supreme Court itself wavered: the proposed rule let each clerk issue “in accordance with that court’s procedures,” and the final order deleted that clause — yet the counties behave as if it survived. We run the clerk channel whenever you want it, with each county’s quirks confirmed in advance. But our default is the track with no counter at all.
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Texas adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act the long way around: H.B. 3929 (signed June 11, 2023) invited the Supreme Court to act, and the Court did — Misc. Docket No. 25-9060 created Rule 201.3, effective August 31, 2025, two days before the statutory deadline. Submit the out-of-state subpoena to a clerk of a district or county court in the discovery county; the request does not constitute an appearance; the clerk must promptly issue. But Texas modified the uniform act — no premises-inspection subpoenas, court order still required — and the same order narrowed Rule 201.2 to Hague letters of request while the act repealed § 20.002, the old commission statute, effective September 1, 2025. Both tracks now ride Rules 176 and 205: the 150-mile range limit, the 10-day records notice, and the $10.00 witness fee tendered at service.
Texas came to the uniform act last among the big states, and on its own terms. House Bill 3929 — signed by the Governor on June 11, 2023 — did not enact the UIDDA; it provided that before September 1, 2025, the Supreme Court of Texas may adopt it as rules of civil procedure. The Court proposed in April 2025, took comments through August 1, and by Misc. Docket No. 25-9060, dated August 29, 2025, made new Rule 201.3 effective August 31, 2025 — with the statute’s own Section 2(a) repealing § 20.002, the mandate-writ-or-commission compulsion statute, the very next day. The handoff was deliberate, and the new channel is real: under Rule 201.3, a party submits the out-of-state subpoena to a clerk of a district or county court in the county in which discovery is sought — two clerk offices per county, the filer’s choice — the request “does not constitute an appearance in a Texas court,” and the clerk “must promptly issue” a subpoena that incorporates your foreign terms together with the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all counsel of record and any self-represented party who has appeared. No commission, no local counsel, no judge.
But Texas adopted the act “as modified,” and the modifications matter. The rule defines only two terms — there is no “however denominated,” no definition of “state,” and so no express tribal-court inclusion — and the definition of “subpoena” itself executes the headline carve-out: testimony and documents only, no premises inspections by subpoena, for which Texas keeps its court-order requirement in-state and out. Meanwhile the counter tells its own story. Practitioner surveys of the district clerks in the six largest metro counties found no UIDDA forms anywhere — some offices began drafting them, then dropped the idea — letterhead filings accepted in some counties and refused in others, and in every county a filing fee equivalent to the cost of a new lawsuit, several hundred dollars set locally, although the fee schedule in Government Code § 51.318 prices the act of issuing a subpoena at $8.00. Even the drafting wavered: the proposed rule had clerks issue “in accordance with that court’s procedures,” and the final order deleted the clause — yet county practice behaves as if it survived. The channel works; it is simply not yet uniform. We file it on request, county quirks confirmed first.
Which is why our default is the other track — the one Texas ran for decades and whose engine survives intact in Rule 176.4. A Texas subpoena may be issued not only by a clerk but by “an attorney authorized to practice in the State of Texas, as an officer of the court,” or by “an officer authorized to take depositions in this State, who must issue the subpoena immediately” on a request accompanied by a Rule 199 or 200 deposition notice or a Rule 205.3 notice for records. Paired with your court’s authorization — issued to any authorized Texas entity, not restricted to a court — that is issuance with no counter, no case file, and no filing fee — the speed track, built for the cooperative compliance that is most of this work, paired with the clerk channel whenever a fight is foreseeable, because compulsion now runs through Rule 201.3. Both tracks then ride the same spine, because Rule 201.3(c) and (d) weld every domesticated subpoena to Rules 176 and 205: the 150-mile limit of Rule 176.3 on where a person can be made to appear or produce; the Rule 205.2 notice to the witness and all parties, served at least 10 days before any records-only subpoena; service anywhere in Texas by any person who is not a party and is 18 years of age or older, delivering a copy and tendering the fees; the flat $10.00 daily witness fee of CPRC § 22.001 paid “at the time the subpoena is served” — travel included, mileage abolished — and the enforcement gate of Rule 176.8: contempt punishable by fine or confinement, but never without proof by affidavit that every fee was paid or tendered. Our packets are built backwards from that affidavit, in all 254 counties.
Texas didn't adopt the uniform act — it adopted the act as modified, and the Supreme Court's own comment says exactly what was cut.
From the final order adopting Rule 201.3:
Read it closely and three facts fall out. The premises-inspection power that the uniform act gives clerks is excluded in Texas — a court order remains the only path onto property, for in-state and out-of-state cases alike. The adoption runs through the Supreme Court's rulemaking, not a statute, so the rule's text — not the Uniform Law Commission's — controls. And because Rule 201.3 defines only two terms, the uniform act's definition of “state” — the one that expressly included federally recognized Indian tribes — never made it into Texas. Tribal-court subpoenas get engineered case by case, and we do that work.
Texas is the one state where the old way and the new way both work today — and the honest comparison is the one nobody else publishes.
Submit the out-of-state subpoena to a clerk of a district or county court in the discovery county; the request is not an appearance; the clerk must promptly issue. This is also the track with teeth — enforcement, quash, and protective-order practice under Rule 201.3(e) presupposes the clerk-issued subpoena. The catch is the counter: no standard forms anywhere, letterhead accepted in some counties only, and a filing fee equivalent to a new lawsuit — several hundred dollars, set locally. We file it on request, with the county's intake practice and exact fee confirmed before anything is submitted.
Rule 201.3 · District or county clerk · New-suit-equivalent fee · County-variable intakeYour court's authorization — issued to any authorized Texas entity, never restricted to a court — plus the Rule 199, 200, or 205.3 notice, and an authorized issuer must issue the subpoena immediately: a Texas attorney as an officer of the court, or an officer authorized to take depositions. No counter. No case file. No filing fee. Built for cooperative compliance — custodians and witnesses who honor proper papers; when resistance is foreseeable, we pair this with the clerk channel, where compulsion now lives. The 10-day notice and the $10.00 tender are done to the letter, because the enforcement gate demands sworn proof of both.
Rule 176.4(b)-(c) · Issues immediately on the notice · No filing fee · Our defaultWhichever door, the same spine binds the subpoena — Rule 201.3(c)-(d) welds the clerk channel to Rules 176 and 205, and direct issuance lives there natively: the 150-mile range limit, the 10-day records notice to the witness and all parties, tender at service, organization-designee duty, self-authenticating nonparty production, and contempt by fine or confinement — gated on proof by affidavit that the fees were paid. We build every packet backwards from that affidavit. Speed or teeth — or both on one order.
From intake to affidavit — track chosen, venue checked against 150 miles, the notice clock run, the fee tendered, and proof your originating court can file.
Upload the out-of-state subpoena with the Texas county where the witness or records sit. Ask for the Rule 201.3 clerk channel and we run it; say nothing and we default to direct issuance under Rule 176.4 — the faster, fee-free track. For the default we'll tell you exactly what to obtain from your court: an authorization naming any authorized entity in Texas as issuer, never just the court itself.
Rule 176.3(a): a person may not be required to appear or produce in a county more than 150 miles from where the person resides or is served. In a state 800 miles across, that single sentence decides venue more often than any other — we map the witness, fix the compliance county, and only then draft.
The Texas subpoena issues in the name of “The State of Texas” per Rule 176.1, incorporating your foreign terms with the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all counsel and any self-represented party who has appeared — the Rule 201.3(b)(3) contact block — plus the Rule 205.3 notice contents for records: the person, a reasonable time and place, and the items described with reasonable particularity. Texas publishes no statewide civil subpoena form — drafting runs to Rule 176’s contents — and where the destination clerk keeps its own paper, like Harris’s Request for Issuance of Service or Fort Bend’s subpoena forms with their $10.00 Witness Fee Attached checkbox and built-in acceptance-of-service block, we file on the county’s form.
Clerk channel: our representative files with the chosen district or county clerk, fronts the county’s confirmed fee, and the clerk must promptly issue. Direct issuance: on the notice, the authorized issuer must issue the subpoena immediately — Rule 176.4(c)’s own words — and may serve the notice with it. Either way you get same-day confirmation that the Texas subpoena exists.
For records-only subpoenas, the Rule 205.2 notice goes to the witness and all parties at least 10 days before the subpoena compelling production is served; deposition notices travel before or with the subpoena. At service we deliver a copy and tender the $10.00 — § 22.001(b): the summoning party “shall pay that witness’s fee for one day... at the time the subpoena is served” — travel included, no mileage owed.
Service anywhere in Texas by our servers — any person who is not a party and is 18 years of age or older qualifies under Rule 176.5 — with proof by the witness’s signed memorandum or the server’s statement of date, time, manner, and name. Your affidavit recites the tender, because Rule 176.8(b) bars any fine or attachment without proof by affidavit that all fees due the witness were paid or tendered — and lands in your inbox filing-ready (PDF).
For forty years the commission was the key to Texas. The legislature and the Court retired it for sister states in a two-day handoff — and left its engine running.
Both tracks, the shared spine, and the fee statutes — each linked from the sections above.
| Authority | Subject | Key requirement |
|---|---|---|
| H.B. 3929 (2023) | The Invitation | Signed June 11, 2023: before September 1, 2025, the Supreme Court of Texas may adopt the UIDDA as rules of civil procedure — and Section 2(a) repealed § 20.002, the commission statute, effective September 1, 2025 |
| Misc. Docket No. 25-9060 | The Adoption | Final approval dated August 29, 2025; Rule 201.3 effective August 31, 2025 — the UIDDA adopted as modified, premises-inspection subpoenas excluded, court order retained for inspections in-state and out |
| Rule 201.3(a)-(b) | Clerk Channel | Out-of-state subpoena to a clerk of a district or county court in the county in which discovery is sought; the request does not constitute an appearance; the clerk must promptly issue, incorporating the foreign terms with all counsel and party names, addresses, and telephone numbers |
| Rule 201.3(c)-(e) | The Weld | Service in compliance with Rules 176 and 205; Rules 190 to 200 and 205 apply; protective orders and applications to enforce, quash, or modify go to the issuing court under the rules or statutes of Texas |
| Rule 201.2 (rewritten) | Foreign Countries Only | Now reaches only letters of request from courts of countries signatory to the Hague Evidence Convention or similar treaties — the sister-state mandate-writ-or-commission language is gone |
| Rule 176.4 | Who May Issue | The clerk of the appropriate district, county, or justice court; an attorney authorized to practice in the State of Texas, as an officer of the court; or an officer authorized to take depositions, who must issue the subpoena immediately on a Rule 199, 200, or 205.3 notice — the direct-issuance engine |
| Rule 176.3 + § 22.002 | The 150-Mile Rule | No person may be required by subpoena to appear or produce in a county more than 150 miles from where the person resides or is served — the statute's distance provision runs to the same line |
| Rule 205.2 + 205.3 | Nonparty Notice | Notice to the nonparty and all parties; deposition notices before or with the subpoena; records-only notices at least 10 days before the subpoena compelling production is served — with contents stated with reasonable particularity and the patient noticed when another nonparty's medical records are sought |
| Rule 176.5 + 176.6 | Service + Response | Service anywhere in Texas by sheriff, constable, or any nonparty 18 or older, delivering a copy and tendering the fees; proof by signed memorandum or server's statement; organizations must designate; production as kept in the usual course; nonparty production authenticates under Rule 193.7 |
| CPRC § 22.001 | Witness Fee + Tender | Ten dollars for each day of attendance, travel included and no mileage; the summoning party shall pay one day's fee at the time the subpoena is served; taxed in the bill of costs |
| Rule 176.7 + 176.8 | Protection + Teeth | Reasonable steps against undue burden; adequate time for compliance; contempt of the issuing court or a district court where served, punishable by fine or confinement — but no fine or attachment without proof by affidavit that all fees due were paid or tendered |
| Gov't Code § 51.318 + CPRC § 22.004 | The Small Print | Eight dollars for issuing a subpoena including one copy at the district clerk's counter; one dollar to a records custodian for production or certification — beside Rule 205.3(f)'s mandate to reimburse the nonparty's reasonable costs of production |
Texas files by county — 254 of them, each with a district clerk and a county clerk, and Rule 201.3 lets the filer choose between them. The clerk-channel filing fee is the cost of opening a new civil matter and is set county by county; the figures above are the statutory lines that exist alongside it, and we confirm each county's intake practice and exact total before anything is filed. Texas publishes no statewide subpoena form — the county clerks' own request-for-issuance forms govern intake where they exist.
A rule that changed addresses, a fee nobody mentions, a tender most states don't have, and 150 miles of geometry — each failure below is live in a published guide or waiting at a clerk's counter.
Guides still teach Rule 201.2's “mandate, writ, or commission” as the Texas pathway. That language was rewritten out on August 31, 2025 — 201.2 now reaches only Hague letters of request from foreign countries, and § 20.002 was repealed the next day. We draft to Rule 201.3 and Rule 176.4 — the citations that exist — and pair the clerk channel from day one when a fight is foreseeable, because a packet leaning on the repealed compulsion theory invites a quash.
The statute prices issuing a subpoena at $8.00 — but every metro clerk collects a filing fee equivalent to a new lawsuit on UIDDA submissions, set county by county. We confirm the county's exact figure before filing — or run the direct-issuance track, which has no filing fee at all.
No surveyed metro county has created a UIDDA intake form — some started, then decided against it — and letterhead filings pass in some counties and bounce in others. We package to each clerk's actual practice, confirmed by phone, not to a form nobody printed.
Rule 205.2 requires the records-only notice to the witness and all parties at least 10 days before the subpoena compelling production is served. Serve them together and the subpoena is premature. We run the 10-day clock first, every time.
§ 22.001(b) commands the fee at the time the subpoena is served — and Rule 176.8(b) bars any fine or attachment without proof by affidavit that all fees were paid or tendered. No tender, no teeth. We tender at service and recite it in the affidavit.
Rule 176.3(a): no appearance or production may be compelled in a county more than 150 miles from where the person resides or is served. In Texas that sentence voids more venues than anywhere in America. We map the witness before we draft the place of compliance.
Both tracks under one roof — drafted to the rules that exist, costed honestly, served personally, proven by affidavit.
Rule 201.3 clerk filings on request; Rule 176.4 direct issuance by default — with the trade-offs laid out in plain numbers before you commit.
In the name of The State of Texas, foreign terms incorporated, the full contact block with telephone numbers, and Rule 205.3 notice contents stated with reasonable particularity.
District or county clerk, letterhead or styled filing, and the exact local fee — confirmed with the office that will touch your papers, in any of 254 counties.
The 10-day records notice to the witness and all parties, the $10.00 tendered at the moment of service, and both recited where they count — in the affidavit.
Texas servers from El Paso to Beaumont — delivery to the witness with fees tendered, proof by signed memorandum or server's statement under Rule 176.5.
Issuance reported the day it happens, venue verified against the 150-mile rule, and a filing-ready affidavit of service (PDF) for your originating court.
Testimony and documents — the two commands Rule 201.3 reaches — plus the inspection work that still takes a court order.
Records and tangible things on the Rule 205.3 notice — the 10-day clock run, particularity drafted in, custodian costs handled under 205.3(f).
Oral examination or written questions, venue fixed inside the 150-mile line, notice served before or with the subpoena, fee tendered at service.
Combined commands mirrored from your foreign subpoena with the full contact block — one document, both duties, both tracks available.
Texas excluded premises inspections from the clerk channel — a court order remains the path, and we coordinate the motion practice and the inspection logistics.
Out-of-state counsel and the teams behind them — anyone who needs a Texas witness without learning two tracks, 254 counties, and a tender doctrine.
Out-of-state litigators reaching Texas witnesses and custodians — track chosen on the numbers, clock and tender run to the letter, affidavit built for enforcement.
Discovery from the employers anchoring Houston's energy corridor, Austin's tech build-out, and the DFW logistics grid — served personally, statewide.
Records from the hospital systems of the Texas Medical Center to the Panhandle — with the Rule 205.3(c) patient notice handled when another nonparty's chart is in play.
Claims files, adjuster depositions, and account records across carriers and banks — organization-designee demands drafted under Rule 176.6(b).
One vendor for the chain — track selection, 150-mile venue check, drafting, issuance, notice clock, tender, service, affidavit — with same-day confirmations.
Agencies reselling Texas coverage — we run both tracks and the Rule 176 service under your brand's timeline.
The biggest county map in America — from Dalhart in the Panhandle to Brownsville on the border, Orange on the Sabine to El Paso on the Rio Grande — one vendor, every courthouse.
That's all 254 — more counties than any state in the country — each with a district clerk and a county clerk, either of whom can receive a Rule 201.3 submission. Distance is the quiet ruler here: El Paso sits closer to San Diego than to Houston, which is why the 150-mile rule of Rule 176.3 decides compliance venue in Texas more often than anywhere else, and why we map the witness before we draft. Whichever county your witness calls home — Loving's 64 residents or Harris's 4.7 million — the subpoena issues, the fee is tendered, and the affidavit comes back filing-ready.
Straight answers — with the order, the rules, and the statutes linked — on domesticating and serving an out-of-state subpoena in Texas.
Send the originating court, the Texas county where the witness or records sit, and your subpoena PDF — and pick your track, or let us default to direct issuance. We verify the 150-mile venue, run the 10-day notice, tender the $10.00 at service, deliver personally, and return a filing-ready affidavit — all 254 counties.
Served 123 LLC is a process service and litigation-support company, not a law firm, and does not provide legal advice. Clerk filings, issuance coordination, and service are performed administratively at the direction of the client and its counsel. Cost figures are cited from CPRC §§ 22.001, 22.004 and Government Code § 51.318 and are subject to legislative change; clerk-channel filing fees are set county by county and are confirmed with the destination clerk before every filing.
