Under South Dakota’s Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, a foreign subpoena is submitted to the clerk of court for the county where discovery is sought, who issues it. It requires no local attorney. Served 123 LLC handles the filing and service, one quote.
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Every South Dakota Order Includes
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Every South Dakota County
Served 123 LLC handles subpoena domestications in all 66 South Dakota counties. The county finder names the discovery county’s clerk of court, and the directory lists each address.
Documents Subpoena
A records subpoena adds two steps, a notice to each party before service and a window for the witness to object in writing afterward, because the uniform rule carries every other Rule 45 provision over to a clerk-issued subpoena as well. The witness’s ten days to object run from service. Your written quote confirms the path, before you pay.
South Dakota Subpoena Domestication Order
One written quote covers document preparation, any issuer’s or clerk’s fee and service if ordered.
Under § 15-6-28.3, the foreign subpoena is submitted to a county clerk of court, who issues the South Dakota subpoena on it. Each row of the table carries its rule or statute, and the numbered stops show who does what, in order.
| Point | South Dakota | Statute or Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Law | The uniform act adopted as Supreme Court Rule 12-02, in force since July 1, 2012 | SDCL §§ 15-6-28.1 to 15-6-28.6 |
| Venue | The discovery county’s clerk of court | § 15-6-28.3(A) |
| Who Issues | The clerk of court, promptly, for service on the person named | § 15-6-28.3(B) |
| Local Attorney | None named; the request is not an appearance | § 15-6-28.3(A) |
| Fee | The clerk’s charge is stated in your written quote | § 16-2-29 |
| Service | An officer or person qualified to serve a summons; no publication | § 15-6-45(c); § 15-6-28.4 |
| Witness Fee | Twenty dollars a day plus mileage, tendered at service | § 19-5-1; § 15-6-45(c) |
| Records Notice | A notice and copy to each party before a records subpoena is served | § 15-6-45(b) |
| Time Limits | Written objection to records within ten days after service | § 15-6-45(d)(1) |
| Motions | In the court of the discovery county; quash or modify under Rule 45(b) | § 15-6-28.6; § 15-6-45(b) |
Your subpoena comes to us with the witness, the county and the counsel list, and your written quote sets out the steps before you pay.
We prepare the South Dakota subpoena on the foreign subpoena’s terms, with each item subsection (C) requires, the quash advisory and the counsel list among them.
The clerk of court in the discovery county issues it for service on the person named.
Your side serves each party a notice and copy of a records subpoena before service, or gives written notice of a deposition.
Our server delivers it like a summons, with one day’s fee and the mileage tendered at service.
The server’s signed affidavit of service comes back to you, noting the fee paid or waived.
Under § 15-6-45(d)(1), a witness may serve a written objection to a records subpoena “within ten days after the service thereof or on or before the time specified in the subpoena for compliance if such time is less than ten days after service”. Since ten days is less than eleven, § 15-6-6(a) leaves out the day of service and every intermediate Saturday, Sunday and legal holiday.
A sooner compliance time written in the subpoena controls instead.
A planning aid, not legal advice. It cannot see a day appointed by the President or the Governor as a holiday, a court order setting another time, or whether service by mail changes the count. If a date is close, ask counsel.
South Dakota adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act as Supreme Court Rule 12-02, in force since July 1, 2012. The quotations below are § 15-6-28.3: where the request goes, who issues it and what the South Dakota subpoena must contain.
To request issuance of a subpoena under §§ 15-6-28.1 to 15-6-28.6, inclusive, a party must submit a foreign subpoena to a clerk of court in the county in which discovery is sought to be conducted in this state. A request for the issuance of a subpoena under §§ 15-6-28.1 to 15-6-28.6, inclusive, does not constitute an appearance in the courts of this state.
Served 123 LLC prepares the South Dakota subpoena and handles the clerk step.
Get a Free Quote Online →When a party submits a foreign subpoena to a clerk of court in this state, the clerk shall promptly issue a subpoena for service upon the person to whom the foreign subpoena is directed.
A subpoena under subsection (B) must: (i) Conform to the requirements of the South Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure, including § 15-6-45, but may otherwise incorporate the terms used in the foreign subpoena so long as they conform to the South Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure; (ii) Advise the person to whom the subpoena is directed that such a person has a right to petition the South Dakota court to quash or modify the subpoena under § 15-6-45(b); and (iii) Contain or be accompanied by the names, addresses, and telephone numbers, of all counsel of record in the proceeding to which the subpoena relates and of any party not represented by counsel.
Official texts: SDCL § 15-6-28.1, § 15-6-28.2, § 15-6-28.3, § 15-6-28.4, § 15-6-28.5 and § 15-6-28.6; SDCL § 15-6-4(c), § 15-6-4(g), § 15-6-6(a), § 15-6-30(b), § 15-6-45(a), § 15-6-45(b), § 15-6-45(c), § 15-6-45(d) and § 15-6-45(g); SDCL § 19-5-1, § 19-5-4, § 3-9-1, § 16-2-29, § 1-5-1, § 36-2-16.7 and § 19-19-902(11). General information, not legal advice. The official text controls.
Served 123 LLC prepares the papers under the rule, and your written quote confirms the steps, before you pay.
Get a Free Quote Online →These cards cover who may serve, timing, the fee and mileage owed, where a witness attends, deposition notice, the proof of service and where a motion goes. For a complaint or other court papers, see process service in South Dakota.
Section 15-6-28.4 says the clerk-issued subpoena “must be served in compliance with § 15-6-45(c).” That subdivision reads: “The subpoena may be served by any officer or person qualified to make service of a summons. The subpoena shall be served in the same manner as a summons is served, excepting that no service by publication is authorized.”
SDCL §§ 15-6-28.4, 15-6-45(c)Rule 4(c) names who may serve a summons, and so a subpoena: “The summons may be served by the sheriff or a constable of the county or other comparable political subdivision where the defendant may be found, or in the District of Columbia by the United States marshal or a deputy, or by any other person not a party to the action who at the time of making such service is an elector of any state.”
SDCL § 15-6-4(c)No day count is set for a testimony subpoena, only a standard: “The subpoena must be served sufficiently in advance of the date upon which the appearance of the witness is required to enable such witness to reach such place by any ordinary or usual method of transportation which he may elect.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(c)The fees travel with the papers, not after them. Section 15-6-45(c) reads: “At the time of service of a subpoena, there shall be tendered to or on behalf of the person therein named the fees for one day's attendance and the mileage allowed by law.” The return then states that payment, as the proof card shows.
SDCL § 15-6-45(c)The same subdivision sets the cost of skipping the tender: “If such fees and mileage be not paid or waived, the witness shall not be obliged to obey the subpoena. At the commencement of each day after the first day, a witness under subpoena may demand his fees for that day's attendance, and if the same is not paid, he shall not be required to remain.” One exception: “When the subpoena is issued on behalf of the State of South Dakota or its political subdivisions or an officer or agency thereof, fees and mileage need not be tendered.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(c)Section 19-5-1 reads: “Each witness shall receive, for each day's attendance before any court, board, or tribunal in any civil or criminal case twenty dollars and mileage at such rate as may be established pursuant to § 3-9-1. Such mileage is limited to each mile actually and necessarily traveled.” Under § 3-9-1, “the maximum mileage reimbursement rate is fifty-one cents per mile or the standard mileage rate for business authorized by the United States Internal Revenue Service as of October first each year, whichever is greater rounded up to the nearest penny.”
SDCL §§ 19-5-1, 3-9-1A deposition comes to the witness, not the other way round. For a South Dakota resident, § 15-6-45(d)(2) reads: “A resident of this state may be required to attend an examination only in the county wherein he resides or is employed or transacts his business in person, or at such other convenient place as is fixed by an order of the court.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(d)(2)For a nonresident: “A nonresident of this state may be required to attend only in the county wherein he is served the subpoena, or at such other convenient place as is fixed by an order of the court.” Under § 15-6-45(g), “the mileage required to be paid such witness as provided in § 15-6-45(c) shall be computed from the place of service of the subpoena to the place of attendance.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(d)(2), (g)Rule 30(b)(1) reads: “A party desiring to take the deposition of any person upon oral examination shall give reasonable notice in writing to every other party to the action.” Under § 15-6-45(d)(1), “proof of service of a notice to take a deposition as provided in §§ 15-6-30(b) and 15-6-31(a) constitutes a sufficient authorization for the issuance by any person specified in § 15-6-45(a) or by the clerk of courts of the county in which the deposition is to be taken of subpoenas for the persons named or described therein.”
SDCL §§ 15-6-30(b)(1), 15-6-45(d)(1)Rule 4(g) reads: “Proof of the service of the summons and complaint or of any pleading, process, or other paper must state the time, place, and manner of such service”. Who signs depends on who served: “If served by a sheriff or a county constable, his certificate thereof; (2) If by any other person, his affidavit thereof;” For a subpoena, § 15-6-45(c) adds: “The fact of such payment, or the signed waiver thereof by the person named in the subpoena, shall be stated in the return.”
SDCL §§ 15-6-4(g), 15-6-45(c)Section 15-6-45(b) reads: “The court, upon motion made promptly and in any event at or before the time specified in the subpoena for compliance therewith, may: (1) Quash or modify the subpoena if it is unreasonable and oppressive; or (2) Condition denial of the motion upon the advancement by the person in whose behalf the subpoena is issued of the reasonable cost of producing the books, papers, documents, or tangible things.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(b)Protective orders and motions to enforce, quash or modify all go to one place. Section 15-6-28.6 keeps the dispute local: “An application to the court for a protective order or to enforce, quash, or modify a subpoena issued by a clerk of court under §§ 15-6-28.1 to 15-6-28.6, inclusive, must comply with the rules or laws of South Dakota and be submitted to the court in the county in which discovery is to be conducted.”
SDCL § 15-6-28.6Served 123 LLC handles the service, the fee and mileage tendered and the signed proof of service.
Get a Free Quote Online →These cards follow a records subpoena from the party notice through the ten-day objection, then medical records.
Section 15-6-45(b) reads: “A subpoena may command the person to whom it is directed to produce the books, papers, documents, or tangible things designated therein, regardless of whether the attorney also notices the person's deposition or commands the presence of the person to which it is directed to give testimony at a hearing or trial.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(b)A records subpoena waits on the other side. Every party in the case sees it before the witness does: “Before a subpoena commanding the production of documentary evidence is served on the person to whom it is directed, a notice and copy of the subpoena must be served on each party to the matter pending.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(b)Under § 15-6-45(d)(1), “The person to whom the subpoena is directed may, within ten days after the service thereof or on or before the time specified in the subpoena for compliance if such time is less than ten days after service, serve upon the attorney designated in the subpoena written objection to inspection or copying of any or all of the designated materials.” Once that objection is served: “If objection is made, the party serving the subpoena shall not be entitled to inspect and copy the materials except pursuant to an order of the court from which the subpoena was issued.”
SDCL § 15-6-45(d)(1)South Dakota’s evidence rules make certified business records self-authenticating. Section 19-19-902(11) covers “the original or copy of a domestic record that meets the requirements of subdivision 19-19-803(6)(A)-(C) as shown by a certification of the custodian or another qualified person that complies with a statute or a rule prescribed by the Supreme Court.” It then reads: “Before the trial or hearing, the proponent must give an adverse party reasonable written notice of the intent to offer the record”, and the proponent “must make the record and certification available for inspection”.
SDCL § 19-19-902(11)Section 36-2-16.7 reads: “Sections 36-2-16.1 to 36-2-16.6, inclusive, apply to any medical record produced by a health care provider or medical records company pursuant to a subpoena issued under the authority of a court, an administrative body, or other tribunal.” Federal privacy law adds its own test: with a court order, the provider “discloses only the protected health information expressly authorized by such order”.
SDCL § 36-2-16.7; 45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e)(1)(i)For the subpoena alone, the federal rule asks more. A clerk-issued subpoena without a court order behind it falls under disclosure “In response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process, that is not accompanied by an order of a court or administrative tribunal”, which turns on assurance of patient notice or a protective order, or the provider’s own efforts toward either.
45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e)(1)(ii), (vi)For a records request, we prepare the papers under the rule, and your written quote confirms the steps, before you pay.
Get a Free Quote Online →Each of these points comes from a South Dakota rule. Most sit in the county choice, the subpoena’s required contents or the fee at service.
Before service, we compare the papers we prepare with the rules and raise anything that needs your input.
Each county’s clerk of court is listed below with the office address. Type a town, city or ZIP code to find the county.
The UJS Court Finder names each clerk of court under its county.
A witness just over a state line falls under that state’s route instead. “No” reflects each state’s own rule text; “Check” means that state’s filing rules for an out-of-state requester need confirming first.
| State | Act Adopted | Local Attorney Required by the Act | Who Issues |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | SDCL 15-6-28.1 to 15-6-28.6 (eff. July 1, 2012) | No | Clerk of court, discovery county |
| North Dakota | N.D.R.Ct. 5.1 (eff. March 1, 2013) | Check | Clerk of court, discovery county |
| Minnesota | Minn. R. Civ. P. 45.06 (eff. July 1, 2015) | Check | Court administrator, discovery county, or a Minnesota attorney |
| Iowa | Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.1702 (eff. Feb. 4, 2013) | Check | County clerk (signed blank) or an Iowa attorney |
| Nebraska | Neb. Ct. R. § 6-330(A) (eff. Feb. 16, 2021, amended 2025) | Check | Clerk of the district court, discovery county |
| Wyoming | W.R.C.P. 28(c) (2017, amended 2021) | Check | Clerk of the district court, discovery county |
| Montana | M. R. Civ. P. 28(c) (eff. Oct. 1, 2011) | Check | Clerk of court, discovery county |
Each answer cites a South Dakota rule or statute. For questions that apply in every state, see our Subpoena Domestication FAQ. General information, not legal advice.
In the county where the discovery will take place. Section 15-6-28.3(A) sets that venue, and § 15-6-45(d)(2) limits a resident witness to the county of residence, work or in-person business, or another place a court order fixes. The rule section covers the venue text, and the county directory lists each of the 66 counties with its clerk of court and address.
No. Under § 15-6-28.3(A), filing the foreign subpoena with a clerk here does not make the requesting party appear before a South Dakota court. What it does create is the courts’ power to enforce, quash or modify the subpoena, enter protective orders and sanction the requesting attorney for a violation of the South Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure. The rule section sets out subsection (A) in order.
Yes. Under § 15-6-28.3(A), an attorney from outside South Dakota may petition the courts here to enforce the subpoena or resolve a dispute about it, and may answer a motion filed by anyone else, with no pro hac vice admission. The rule section covers that sentence of subsection (A) beside the appearance rule.
No. Under § 15-6-28.3(B), issuance is the clerk’s act once the foreign subpoena is submitted, and the rule names no judge’s review before it. A dispute about the subpoena reaches a judge only by motion, in the discovery county under § 15-6-28.6. The rule section quotes subsection (B) word for word.
Under § 15-6-28.3(C), it conforms to the South Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure, it advises the witness of the right to petition to quash or modify, and it lists every counsel of record and unrepresented party with addresses and phone numbers. The rule section covers the full list, and the warning card covers § 15-6-45(a).
Any officer or person qualified to serve a summons, under § 15-6-45(c), which § 15-6-28.4 applies to a clerk-issued subpoena. Rule 4(c) names the sheriff or a constable of the county, or any person not a party who is an elector of any state. The service cards set out each text in turn.
No. Under § 15-6-45(c), a subpoena is served in the same manner as a summons, except that no service by publication is authorized. Personal delivery by a qualified server is the path, and a server who cannot find the witness reports the attempts instead. The first service card covers that subdivision word for word.
A sheriff or county constable signs a certificate, and anyone else signs an affidavit, under Rule 4(g), stating the time, place and manner of service. For a subpoena, § 15-6-45(c) adds that the return states the fee payment or the witness’s signed waiver. The proof card covers each rule text.
All the other parties in the case are owed it under Rule 30(b)(1), and it does a second job too. By § 15-6-45(d)(1), once that service is proved, the proof by itself is enough for the deposition county’s clerk to issue the witness subpoenas. The deposition notice card quotes both rules.
Yes, once served inside the state. The attendance place then follows where the papers were handed over rather than the witness’s home, unless a court order sets another place, by § 15-6-45(d)(2), and § 15-6-45(g) starts the mileage count at that spot. See the nonresident card and the attendance card.
Twenty dollars for each day’s attendance under § 19-5-1, plus mileage at a rate set under § 3-9-1, counting only miles actually and necessarily traveled. One day’s fee and the mileage are handed over at service under § 15-6-45(c), and your quote carries them. The witness fee card quotes both texts.
Yes. Under § 15-6-45(c), one day’s fees and the mileage allowed by law are due at service, and a witness may demand each later day’s fee before staying on; unless the fees are paid or waived, the witness is not obliged to obey. No tender is needed when the subpoena is issued for the State or its subdivisions. The unpaid fee card covers each rule.
With a written objection sent to the lawyer the subpoena names, inside the ten-day window or before the compliance date if that comes sooner, per § 15-6-45(d)(1). Inspection then waits for a court order. The objection card quotes the rule, and the calculator counts the days around weekends and holidays.
Demands that are unreasonable and oppressive, raised by a prompt motion, under § 15-6-45(b). The court may also keep the subpoena in force and make the requester advance the reasonable production cost. Bring the motion at or before the compliance time; it is heard in the discovery county. The motion card has the full text, and the venue card follows it.
In the discovery county, by § 15-6-28.6, and South Dakota procedure governs the hearing, whichever state issued the original subpoena. That covers protective orders, enforcement and motions to quash or modify alike. The court card quotes that rule, and the card before it sets out the motion standard.
Yes, with conditions. Under 45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e)(1)(ii), it may disclose on satisfactory assurance that the patient was given notice or that the requester sought a qualified protective order, and (vi) lets it make those efforts itself. With an order, it releases only what the order expressly authorizes. The two medical cards cover both routes.
Weekends and state holidays drop out. Under § 15-6-6(a), counting starts the day after service, and a period shorter than eleven days skips every Saturday, Sunday and legal holiday in between; § 1-5-1 names the holidays. The calculator applies that count, and the objection card covers the ten-day text.
No. The rule sets no day count, though § 15-6-45(b) requires a notice and copy of the subpoena on each party before service, and § 15-6-45(c) asks that a testimony subpoena reach the witness early enough to travel by ordinary means. See the party notice card and the travel time card.
In your written quote, before you pay, beside document preparation and service. Under § 16-2-29, the clerk of courts charges and collects listed fees, and the quote names the charge for the county where the discovery takes place. The route section sets out each step in order, from the papers to the signed proof.
Yes. We prepare the subpoena, cover the clerk’s charge and, if ordered, serve the witness with the § 19-5-1 fee and mileage tendered, all on one written quote you see before paying. Send the witness, the county and whether testimony, records or both are sought. The route section names who handles each step.
One written quote covers document preparation, any issuer’s or clerk’s fee and service if ordered.
Questions? Call (800) 321-2377
Nearby States: North Dakota · Minnesota · Iowa
