Short answer. The subpoena must be served in a way that allows the witness a reasonable time for preparation and travel to the place of attendance — setting a hearing that leaves no realistic time to comply would not satisfy proper service of a subpoena under this rule.
What the law says
Service of a subpoena shall be made in the same manner as personal or substituted service of summons. The original shall be exhibited and a copy thereof delivered to the person on whom it is served. The service must be made so as to allow the witness a reasonable time for preparation and travel to the place of attendance. Costs for court attendance and the production of documents and other materials subject of the subpoena shall be tendered or charged accordingly.
Rule 21, Section 6 — Service. Read the full provision →
How a subpoena is served
Service of a subpoena follows the very same manner already established for personal or substituted service of summons — the same underlying procedural mechanics used elsewhere for actually bringing a defendant properly into a case are borrowed directly here for the separate purpose of compelling a witness's attendance instead. The original copy of the subpoena is exhibited to the recipient, and a copy of it is then delivered to the person actually being served.
The reasonable-time requirement
Beyond simply following the summons-style service mechanics described above, the rule adds one further substantive condition on top: the service must be made so as to allow the witness a genuinely reasonable time for both preparation and travel to the actual place of attendance. Service that is technically completed only at the very last minute, leaving the witness no realistic opportunity to prepare or physically travel there, would clearly not meet this required standard.
Costs for compliance
The rule also separately addresses the practical matter of costs: costs for court attendance, and for the production of any documents and other materials that are the subject of the subpoena, shall be tendered or charged accordingly to the requesting party. This acknowledges directly that complying with a subpoena, especially one requiring genuine travel or the production of documents, can carry real and sometimes significant expense for the particular person served.
Why reasonable time matters for validity
Because a subpoena functions as a form of compulsory legal process, service that gives the witness effectively no meaningful chance to prepare or to physically get to the actual place of attendance undermines the basic fairness that the rule deliberately builds into the process — reasonable time here is not simply a courtesy extended to the witness, but a stated legal condition for service to be considered proper in the first place.
Related provisions
- Rule 21, Section 6 — Service
- Rule 21, Section 5 — Subpoena for depositions
- Rule 21, Section 7 — Personal appearance in court