§ 2020.220.Service of deposition subpoena; timing; persons authorized to serve;

Service is where a deposition subpoena becomes binding, and this section covers both the mechanics and, at length, the special problems electronic data creates. On timing, service has to happen far enough in advance to give the deponent a real chance to locate and produce whatever records or things are requested, and enough time to travel if personal attendance is required. Any person can serve the subpoena, delivering a copy personally to the individual deponent or to an authorized officer, director, custodian, or employee if the deponent is an organization.

Personal service on a California resident locks in several obligations at once: attendance and testimony if specified, any production, inspection, testing, or sampling called for, and attendance at a court session if the subpoena addresses a refusal to comply. The section then turns to electronically stored information specifically. Absent agreement or a court order otherwise, a subpoenaed party produces electronic data in the form it's ordinarily kept or a reasonably usable form, and never needs to produce the same data twice in different forms. Someone resisting production because the data isn't reasonably accessible carries the burden of proving that, but even then a court can order discovery on a showing of good cause, setting conditions like cost allocation. The court also has to limit electronic discovery, even from accessible sources, when it's cumulative, available more easily elsewhere, or outweighs its likely benefit. A party demanding electronic discovery must take reasonable steps to avoid undue burden on the person subpoenaed, and courts protecting a nonparty from undue burden must build that protection into any compliance order. Finally, the section shields a subpoenaed person from sanctions for electronic data lost through the routine, good-faith operation of an information system, though that safe harbor doesn't excuse an independent duty to preserve evidence.