§ 2029.300.Issuance of subpoena

This section is the engine of the whole reciprocity scheme. A party who wants discovery here, in aid of a case pending elsewhere, submits the original or a true and correct copy of the foreign subpoena to the clerk of the superior court in the county where discovery is to happen. Doing that isn't treated as making an appearance in California courts, so the out-of-state litigant doesn't risk submitting to California jurisdiction just by starting this process.

Submitting the foreign subpoena alone isn't enough. The party also has to file a Judicial Council application requesting a California subpoena with the same terms as the foreign one, with no civil case cover sheet required, and pay the statutory fee. Once both pieces are in place, the clerk's role is largely mechanical: the clerk promptly issues a subpoena for service on the person the foreign subpoena is directed at. That new subpoena has to incorporate the foreign subpoena's own terms, include the contact information for all counsel of record and any unrepresented party, carry the caption and case number of the out-of-state case, name the issuing court, and use the Judicial Council form. This is the mechanism that replaced the older, slower letters-rogatory process for interstate and international discovery: no separate lawsuit, no motion, just a clerk's ministerial act.