Vermont adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act in V.R.C.P. 45(f). A foreign subpoena is submitted for judge review to the clerk of the county where discovery is sought; the rule requires no Vermont attorney. Served 123 LLC files and serves it.
What to Send Us
Every Vermont Order Includes
Skip tracing is available if the address turns out to be bad. In-person service can be added to the order.
Every Vermont County
Served 123 LLC handles subpoena domestications in all 14 Vermont counties. The county finder names the Superior Court civil division where discovery is sought, and the directory lists each address. Search it by town or ZIP code. Each unit’s Civil Division clerk receives the request, and a judge there reviews the papers before the clerk signs the Vermont subpoena.
Documents Subpoena
A person asked only for records need not appear in person under Rule 45(c)(2)(A), and may object in writing within 14 days after service. Patient records carry Vermont’s own privilege and privacy statutes, set out below. Your written quote confirms the path, before you pay.
Vermont Subpoena Domestication Order
One written quote covers document preparation, any issuer’s or clerk’s fee and service if ordered.
The table gives each point of the route with its rule or statute, and the steps below show the order of the work, from the papers you send to the Return of Service.
| Point | Vermont | Statute or Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Law | Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 45(f), the uniform act adopted with modifications by court rule | Rule 45(f) |
| Venue | Superior Court clerk, discovery county | Rule 45(f)(3)(A) |
| Who Submits | A party or attorney | Rule 45(f)(3)(A) |
| What Goes In | The foreign subpoena or order, a Vermont subpoena for the clerk’s signature, the counsel list and the filing fee | Rule 45(f)(3)(A) |
| Review | A judge reviews without delay; on approval the clerk promptly signs | Rule 45(f)(3)(C) |
| Contents | The text of Rule 45(c) and (d), printed on the subpoena | Rule 45(a)(1)(D) |
| Court Fee | $295, the Superior Court civil entry fee | 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(1) |
| Service | In person, by anyone over 18 who is not a party | Rule 45 guidance |
| Witness Fee | $30.00 a day, plus mileage at the State employee rate | 32 V.S.A. § 1551 |
| Hearing Tender | Fee and mileage paid when the subpoena is served | Rule 45 guidance |
| Proof | The Return of Service, then filed with the court | Rule 45 guidance |
| Party Notice | The other parties, before or with service on the witness | Rule 45 guidance |
| Objections | Records objections within fourteen days after service | Rule 45(c)(2)(B) |
| Travel Limit | A deposition no more than 50 miles one way for a resident | Rule 45(c)(3)(A)(ii) |
| Motions | The Vermont court for the discovery county | Rule 45(f)(3)(B) |
Your subpoena comes to us with the witness, your dates and the counsel list, and your written quote confirms the steps before you pay.
We prepare the Vermont subpoena with the Rule 45(c) and (d) text, and the list of every counsel and unrepresented party that goes with it.
The request goes to the Superior Court in the discovery county, where a judge reviews it and, on approval, the clerk signs.
Your side serves the other parties a copy before or with service, or after it for a witness.
Our server delivers the signed subpoena to the witness in person, with any hearing fee due at service.
The server completes the Return of Service, and the signed subpoena comes back to you.
Under Rule 45(c)(2)(B), a person commanded to produce may serve written objection “within 14 days after service of the subpoena or before the time specified for compliance if such time is less than 14 days after service”. Under Rule 6(a), the day of service is left out, every day counts, and a last day on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday runs to the next day that is none of those.
A compliance date earlier than Day 14 controls instead.
A planning aid, not legal advice. It does not add the Friday or Monday on which State offices observe a weekend holiday under § 371(b), a day the court closes, a holiday declared later or a court order setting another time. Each can only make the date later; if a date is close, ask counsel.
Vermont adopted the uniform act through its Rules of Civil Procedure rather than a statute. The quotations below are Rule 45(f)(3) as the Superior Court has quoted it: who submits, to which clerk, with what, and the judge’s review before the clerk signs.
a party or attorney must submit a foreign subpoena or a court order from the foreign jurisdiction to the clerk of court in the county in which discovery is sought to be conducted, along with (i) a Vermont subpoena for signature by the clerk, (ii) a list of all counsel (or unrepresented parties') in the foreign action and their addresses and phone numbers, and (iii) the required filing fee.
Served 123 LLC prepares the Vermont subpoena and handles the court filing.
Get a Free Quote Online →the clerk shall provide [the subpoena] to the judge for review without delay. If the judge approves the request the clerk shall promptly sign the Vermont subpoena and return it to the requesting party for service.
The Chittenden Civil Division denied a petition in Frank v. Drawdy, No. 989-10-17 Cncv (Vt. Super. Ct. Oct. 27, 2017), because the subpoena had not been issued by the trial-state court and did not set out the text of Rule 45(c) and (d): “Petitioners must fully comply with Rule 45 before the court will issue the subpoena.”
The same court granted a motion to quash in Physician’s Indemnity Risk v. Joy, No. 902-10-19 Cncv (Vt. Super. Ct. Dec. 11, 2019): the subpoena behind it came from an out-of-state administrative agency, not a court.
A 2024 ruling, In re Haynes Aggregates, No. 24‑CV‑1727 (Vt. Super. Ct. June 26, 2024), stayed a motion to quash and the related discovery until the trial-state court ruled on the motion to quash filed there.
No reported Vermont appellate decision has yet interpreted Rule 45(f); the rule’s own text governs submission, review, issuance and service.
Official texts: 32 V.S.A. § 1431, 32 V.S.A. § 1551, 12 V.S.A. § 1248, 12 V.S.A. § 1612, 12 V.S.A. § 7304, 18 V.S.A. § 1881 and 1 V.S.A. § 371; V.R.C.P. 6(a) (2018 amendment); 5 U.S.C. § 6103; 45 C.F.R. § 164.512. Vermont’s Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 45 included, are published through LexisNexis. General information, not legal advice. The official text controls.
Served 123 LLC prepares the papers under Rule 45(f), and your written quote confirms the steps, before you pay.
Get a Free Quote Online →These cards set out who may serve, how, what the witness is owed and when, the proof, the notice owed to the other side, the travel limit, the grounds and court for a motion, and what happens when a subpoena is ignored. For a summons or other court papers, see process service in Vermont.
The Judiciary’s subpoena page reads: “You may not serve the subpoena yourself. Anyone else over 18 and who is not a party in the case may deliver the subpoena.” The Vermont subpoena form says the same: “The subpoena may be served by anyone who is not a party to the case and who is over 18.”
V.R.C.P. 45; Vermont JudiciaryVermont’s guidance on the method is one line: “Have a copy of the subpoena delivered in person to the person you are subpoenaing.” It also places the duty on the requester: “The requesting party is responsible for serving the subpoena and paying the witness fee (if applicable).”
V.R.C.P. 45; Vermont JudiciarySection 1551 of Title 32 sets the attendance fee: “For attendance before a court or to give a deposition before a notary public, $30.00 a day.” Mileage follows the State rate: “For travel in the State, all witnesses shall receive mileage at the rate of reimbursement allowed State employees for travel under the terms of the prevailing collective bargaining agreement.”
32 V.S.A. § 1551For a hearing, the Judiciary page reads: “The witness fee and mileage reimbursement must be paid at the same time the subpoena is served on the witness.” The form tells the witness the same: “If the subpoena directs you to attend a hearing or trial, you must be paid a 'witness fee' and mileage reimbursement when the subpoena is served on you.”
V.R.C.P. 45; Vermont JudiciaryThe proof is a section of the Vermont subpoena itself, headed: “The person serving the subpoena must complete this section.” The Judiciary page then says where it goes: “The completed subpoena form must then be filed with the court.” The return keeps a separate line for an officer’s service: “If served by sheriff or constable:”.
V.R.C.P. 45; Vermont JudiciaryThe Judiciary page sets the order of notice: “Serve a copy of the subpoena to the other parties in the case before or at the same time as serving the subpoenaed person. If the subpoenaed person is a witness, you also have the option of serving the other parties after the witness is served.”
V.R.C.P. 45; Vermont JudiciaryRule 45(c)(3)(A)(ii) makes a deposition subpoena subject to quashing if it “requires a resident of this state to travel to attend a deposition more than 50 miles one way unless the court otherwise orders; requires a nonresident of this state to travel to attend a deposition at a place more than 50 miles from the place of service unless another convenient place is fixed by order of court”.
Rule 45(c)(3)(A)(ii)Rule 45(c)(3)(A) opens: “On timely motion, the court for which a subpoena was issued shall quash or modify the subpoena if it (i) fails to allow reasonable time for compliance;” Its last grounds cover a subpoena that “requires disclosure of privileged or other protected matter and no exception or waiver applies, or (iv) subjects a person to undue burden.”
Rule 45(c)(3)(A)Rule 45(f)(3)(B), quoted in the 2024 ruling, reads that a “motion for a protective order or to enforce, quash, or modify a subpoena issued under this paragraph [] must comply with Rule 45(c) and be submitted to the court in the county in which discovery is to be conducted.” The 2011 notes quoted there add that “motions to quash, enforce, or modify a subpoena issued pursuant to the Act shall be brought in and governed by the rules of the discovery state.”
Rule 45(f)(3)(B)The same 2024 ruling quotes the comment to the uniform act on the trial-state court’s role: “Nothing in this act limits any party from applying for appropriate relief in the trial state. Applications to the court that affect only the parties to the action can be made in the trial state.” Applying it, the Vermont court stayed the motion before it, and the related discovery, until the trial-state court ruled on the motion to quash filed there.
Rule 45(f)Rule 45(c)(1) reads: “A party or an attorney responsible for the issuance and service of a subpoena shall take reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden or expense on a person subject to that subpoena.” The court enforces that duty with “an appropriate sanction, which may include, but is not limited to, lost earnings and a reasonable attorney’s fee.”
Rule 45(c)(1)The Judiciary page states the stakes for a served witness who does nothing: “Ignoring a subpoena can lead to sanctions from the court, including potential arrest.” The same page names the route for a witness with grounds: “The subject of the subpoena may object by following the procedures specified in Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 45(f)(3)(B)”.
Rule 45(f)(3)(B); Vermont JudiciaryServed 123 LLC handles the service and the completed Return of Service.
Get a Free Quote Online →These cards cover a request for records alone, the fourteen-day objection, what follows an objection, how records are produced, privileged material, the patient’s privilege, protected health information and legally protected health care.
A keeper asked only for records may send them rather than come in. Under Rule 45(c)(2)(A), the person commanded to produce “need not appear in person at the place of production or inspection unless commanded to appear for deposition, hearing or trial.” The Judiciary page adds the keeper’s other option: “instead of filing a motion they can within 14 days send the party who issued the subpoena a written objection to the request.”
Rule 45(c)(2)(A)Under Rule 45(c)(2)(B), the person commanded to produce “may, within 14 days after service of the subpoena or before the time specified for compliance if such time is less than 14 days after service, serve upon the party or attorney designated in the subpoena written objection”. The objection goes to the requesting side named on the subpoena, not to the court, and it can reach the whole request or only part of it.
Rule 45(c)(2)(B)“If objection is made, the party serving the subpoena shall not be entitled to the requested production or to inspect, copy, test, or sample the materials or inspect the premises except pursuant to an order of the court for which the subpoena was issued.” Any order to compel “shall protect any person who is not a party or an officer of a party from significant expense resulting from the inspection, copying, testing, or sampling commanded.”
Rule 45(c)(2)(B)Rule 45(d)(1)(A) reads: “A person responding to a subpoena to produce documents shall produce them as they are kept in the usual course of business or shall organize and label them to correspond with the categories in the demand.” For stored data, the person produces it “in a form or forms in which the person ordinarily maintains it or in a form or forms that are reasonably usable.”
Rule 45(d)(1)(A), (B)Vermont’s Rule 45(d)(1)(D) carves out electronic sources that are costly to search: “A person responding to a subpoena need not provide discovery of electronically stored information from sources that the party identifies as not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost.”
Rule 45(d)(1)(D)Under Rule 45(d)(2)(A), information held back as privileged or as trial preparation material calls for a claim that “shall be made expressly and shall be supported by a description of the nature of the documents, communications, or things not produced that is sufficient to enable the demanding party to contest the claim.”
Rule 45(d)(2)(A)When protected material goes out with a production and the producer gives notice of the claim, Rule 45(d)(2)(B) binds the receiving side: “After being notified, a party must promptly return, sequester, or destroy the specified information and any copies it has and may not use or disclose the information until the claim is resolved.”
Rule 45(d)(2)(B)Under 12 V.S.A. § 1612, “Unless the patient waives the privilege or unless the privilege is waived by an express provision of law, a person authorized to practice medicine, chiropractic, or dentistry, a registered professional or licensed practical nurse, or a mental health professional” “shall not be allowed to disclose any information acquired in attending a patient in a professional capacity”.
12 V.S.A. § 1612Under 18 V.S.A. § 1881(b), “A covered entity or business associate shall not disclose protected health information unless the disclosure is permitted under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).” Section 1881(c)(1) adds a bar for information “related to a legally protected health care activity” sought “for use in a civil or criminal action; a proceeding preliminary to a civil or criminal action; or a probate, legislative, or administrative proceeding.”
18 V.S.A. § 1881(b), (c)(1)Under 12 V.S.A. § 7304(a), “a court shall not order a person who is domiciled or found within this State to give testimony or a statement or produce documents or other things with any proceeding in a tribunal outside this State concerning abusive litigation involving legally protected health care activity.” Under § 7304(b), a person subpoenaed in such litigation “may move to modify or quash any subpoena issued in connection with such abusive litigation”, including on public-policy grounds.
12 V.S.A. § 7304Federal privacy law sits over §§ 1612 and 1881 for a Vermont provider. Under a court order, the provider “discloses only the protected health information expressly authorized by such order”. Without an order, a bare subpoena calls for satisfactory assurance from the requesting side, either of notice to the patient or of a qualified protective order. For notice, “The party requesting such information has made a good faith attempt to provide written notice to the individual (or, if the individual's location is unknown, to mail a notice to the individual's last known address);”
45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e)(1)(i)-(iii)That notice gives the patient an opening: “The notice included sufficient information about the litigation or proceeding in which the protected health information is requested to permit the individual to raise an objection to the court or administrative tribunal; and” The provider holds the records until “The time for the individual to raise objections to the court or administrative tribunal has elapsed, and:” either “No objections were filed; or” or “All objections filed by the individual have been resolved by the court or the administrative tribunal and the disclosures being sought are consistent with such resolution.”
45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e)(1)(iii)For a records request, we prepare the papers under Rule 45(f), and your written quote confirms the steps, before you pay.
Get a Free Quote Online →Each of these points comes from Vermont’s Rule 45, the Judiciary’s own guidance or a Superior Court ruling. Most come from the subpoena’s contents, the county or the service rules.
Before service, we compare the papers we prepare with the rule and raise anything that needs your input.
Type a town, city or ZIP code to find the county, and the finder names that county’s Superior Court civil division.
A witness may sit just over the line, so the route changes with the state. Each “No” rests on that state’s own rule text; “Check” means confirm that state’s filing rules for an out-of-state requester.
| State | Act Adopted | Local Attorney Required by the Act | Who Issues |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vermont | V.R.C.P. 45(f), adopted by court rule | No | A judge reviews, then the clerk signs |
| New Hampshire | RSA 517-A:1 II until 01/01/2027, then the Uniform Act in RSA 517-A | Check | Justice of the peace or notary; from 01/01/2027 the superior court clerk |
| Massachusetts | None: G.L. c. 233, § 45 and c. 223A, § 11 | Check | Notary or justice of the peace; or a Superior Court order |
| New York | N.Y. CPLR 3119 (2011) | No | County clerk, discovery county (or a New York attorney) |
Each answer cites a Vermont rule or statute. For questions that apply in every state, see our Subpoena Domestication FAQ. General information, not legal advice.
Yes. Rule 45(f)(3)(A) lets either a party or an attorney submit the request, so it is not limited to lawyers, and the rule names no Vermont lawyer step. Whether the request counts as an appearance in a Vermont court is not settled, so counsel should confirm that point; see the rule section.
The Superior Court, which sits in 14 units, one for each county, each with a Civil Division and its own clerk. The request belongs to the unit for the county where the deposition or production will take place, which may differ from the county where the witness lives. Type a town or ZIP code into the county finder to name that unit and its address.
Because the Judiciary page makes review a condition: a judge reviews the documents and decides whether the requirements have been met, and the court issues the subpoena only if they have. A request can therefore be turned down, as one was in 2017 for a missing rule text, so the papers have to be right the first time. We check them against Rule 45 first; see the review quotation.
Subdivisions (c) and (d) of Rule 45 in full, the witness protections and duties. Rule 45(a)(1)(D) makes them part of every Vermont subpoena, and the Judiciary’s current Civil Subpoena form already prints them, so the foreign terms copied onto a bare caption page fall short. See the rule section and the traps.
No. The 2011 Reporter’s Notes to Rule 45 exclude subpoenas of administrative agencies and boards of arbitration from the foreign-subpoena definition, and in 2019 the Superior Court granted a motion to quash on that ground and closed the case. The foreign paper has to come from a court of record; see the case law panel.
No. The requester may not serve it personally under the Judiciary’s Rule 45 guidance, and the subpoena form repeats the rule: the server is any adult over 18 who is not a party to the case. No license is named in either text. Our server delivers it and completes the Return of Service; see the service cards.
Personal delivery. The Judiciary’s guidance names it as the method, and the requesting party carries the duty to serve and to pay any witness fee. Rule 45(b), on the manner of service, is published only through LexisNexis, so we serve by hand and complete the Return of Service on the subpoena itself. See the method card.
Back to the court file. Once our server completes the Return of Service printed on the Vermont subpoena, the Judiciary’s Rule 45 guidance has that completed form filed with the court, and the signed subpoena comes back to you for that step. See the proof card.
Yes, potentially. The Judiciary lists arrest among the court’s possible sanctions, as the sanctions card quotes. A witness with a reason to object has proper routes instead: a motion to quash under Rule 45(c)(3) for unreasonable time, privilege or undue burden, or a written objection to a records request within 14 days of service.
Thirty dollars a day under 32 V.S.A. § 1551, for attendance before a court or a deposition before a notary public, plus mileage for travel in the State at the rate the prevailing collective bargaining agreement allows State employees. Any fee we advance appears in your written quote; see the witness fee card.
Yes, for a hearing. The Judiciary’s Rule 45 page says the witness fee and mileage must be paid at the same time the subpoena is served, and the form tells a witness called to a hearing or trial to expect payment when served. The requesting party is responsible for that payment. See the tender card.
Yes, but it is measured differently. A deponent who lives outside Vermont is held to 50 miles from where the subpoena was served, unless the court fixes another convenient place; for a resident, the Rule 45(c)(3) limit is one way and yields to a court order. See the travel card.
Every day counts. Rule 6(a) leaves out the day of service, counts every day after it, weekends and legal holidays included, and lets a last day that falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday run to the next day that is not one. The objection calculator applies that count to Rule 45(c)(2)(B).
Only for relief that affects the parties alone. Under Rule 45(f)(3)(B), motions about the Vermont subpoena itself belong to the Vermont court of the discovery county, but the uniform comment quoted in a 2024 ruling leaves party-only relief to the trial state, and that Vermont court paused its own case until the trial-state court ruled. See the motions cards.
Yes, with a third statute and federal privacy law beside them. The patient’s privilege in § 1612 bars a provider from disclosing what was learned in treatment unless waived, 18 V.S.A. § 1881 ties disclosure of protected health information to HIPAA, and 12 V.S.A. § 7304 shields legally protected health care activity. How each applies is for counsel; see the records cards.
Under 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(1), it is the Superior Court civil entry fee paid to the clerk before a cause is entered. The Judiciary applies that same entry fee to a request for a foreign subpoena in a non-Vermont case, as the fee card quotes, and your written quote already includes it.
No. The written quote you receive before you pay is all-in: document preparation, the Superior Court fee set by 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(1) and, if you order it, service by our server with the completed Return of Service. Nothing is filed until you approve the quote, and the fee is paid to the clerk with the request. See the route.
No. Rule 45(f)(3)(C) sets the pace in words rather than days: the clerk gives the request to the judge for review without delay, and on approval the clerk promptly signs the Vermont subpoena and returns it for service. Complete papers keep that review from stalling, which is why we build them from your file; see the route.
No. Rule 45 sets a test, not a count: under Rule 45(c)(3)(A)(i), a subpoena that fails to allow reasonable time for compliance is one the court shall quash or modify on timely motion. The 14-day objection period of Rule 45(c)(2)(B) runs alongside it. Give us your dates at the start; see the grounds card.
One written quote, given before you pay, covers three steps: the papers built from your file, the filing with the discovery county’s Superior Court under Rule 45(f)(3)(A) and, if ordered, in-person service with the Return of Service; see the route. Start your order online with your dates.
One written quote covers document preparation, any issuer’s or clerk’s fee and service if ordered.
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