Practice Notes

The following Supreme Court Practice notes provide specific directions in relation to the return of subpoenas, and need to be read in conjunction with any direction or protocol issued by the Chief Justice for appearances to take place in the Virtual Courtroom:

• Practice Note SC – GEN 18 - Production of & access to subpoenaed material and returning exhibits and subpoenaed material in civil proceedings

Civil subpoena forms

The civil subpoena forms can be found here: https://ucprforms.nsw.gov.au/

Criminal subpoena forms

The criminal subpoena forms prescribed under Supreme Court Rules 1970, Schedule F are:

• Form 74AA - Subpoena to a natural person (DOC, 60.5 KB)
• Form 74AB - Subpoena to a corporation for production and for its proper officer to answer questions (DOC, 65.5 KB)
• Form 74AC - Subpoena to give evidence (DOC, 58.5 KB)
• Form 74AD - Subpoena for production and to give evidence (DOC, 60.5 KB)

Producing material to the court online

For civil matters, all material produced to the Court should be submitted through NSW Subpoena Response.

Once registered, guided on-screen prompts will assist you to upload your response to a subpoena.  There are some limits on the size of uploaded material and the number of individual files you can upload as set out on NSW Subpoena Response.  

You are required to attach a copy of the subpoena form when producing documents.

If you are responding to a subpoena or Order for Production that does not have a court item identifier, please follow the instructions under FAQ / Responding on the NSW Subpoena Response site.

Documents in response to a Notice to Produce cannot be uploaded through NSW Subpoena Response. All material produced in response to these requests should be emailed to sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au. Once received, the Registry will send the party who issued the Notice to Produce with an invoice for the storage fee scheduled under Part 5, Item 2 of the Civil Procedure Regulation 2017.

For criminal matters, all material produced to the Court should be emailed to sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au. You are required to attach a copy of the subpoena form when producing documents.

If the material you wish to submit via the NSW Subpoena Response Portal or via email exceeds size limits, you may need to post or hand deliver a USB stick/electronic storage device to the Registry. See further information about producing physical material to the court below.

Do not produce any original material to the registry or Court unless the subpoena asks you to do so.

Always retain a copy of any material produced to the Court.

Producing material to the court by post or by hand

Subpoenas requiring the production of original material should be produced to the registry. You are required to attach a copy of the subpoena form to your original documents that includes the completed declaration nominated the address to which the registry must return the material by post once the case concludes. 

If you need to produce electronic copies of documents to the court and you cannot email them due to size constraints or the complexity of the file format prohibits sending by email, you can post or hand deliver an external storage device to the registry. 

Contact the Registry.

Return of Subpoena List

The Return of Subpoena List is generally conducted at the Supreme Court at Sydney,  at 9:00am each business day (except during vacation unless specified otherwise). It will be held in Court 1A Queens Square Sydney.

Appearances in the list are expected to be in-person unless you have received prior approval to appear by AVL. To apply for an AVL appearance, send an email to sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au  before noon on the day before your appearance and include the following details:

Subject line: Request to appear by AVL for [date of listing] in Return of Subpoena List

Body of email:

Request (legally represented):

request (self- represented):

Case number:
Case name:
Party:	Plaintiff/Defendant/Cross-Claimant/Cross-Defendant/ Applicant/Respondent
Listing date:
List Type:	Court of Appeal/Court of Criminal Appeal/Bails/ Common Law/Equity/Corporations/ Return of Subpoena
[ ] My firm is located at [insert suburb] which is more than 20km away from the Supreme Court registry [ ] I am unwell [ ] Other:
[ ] I reside at [insert suburb] which is more than 20km away from the Supreme Court registry [ ] I am unwell [ ] Other:
All active parties are copied to this email	Yes/No

The registry will email confirmation of your approval to appear by AVL along with the URL you should use for the appearance.

The list is currently published as a PDF spreadsheet at the end of the daily court list which can be found on the NSW Supreme Court Website (http://www.courtlist.justice.nsw.gov.au/courtlists/nswsc_lists.nsf/Web+Version+Courtlist). The list will be called in numerical order.

Consent orders are dealt with by the Registrar in open court at the listing and not before. If urgent access is required prior to the return date, you may send an email to sc.subpoena@justice.nsw.gov.au and attentioned to the Registrar and marked Urgent. The email should include the case number, case name, a scanned copy of signed orders, reasons why the matter is urgent and should state whether all other parties to the case and the subpoena recipient consent to early access. The Registrar will then determine whether access orders will be made in chambers or if the matter will remain listed.

Access orders

Access orders and adjournment orders must be obtained from a Registrar in the Return of Subpoena list.

You must appear to seek access orders for:

• Subpoenas issued in criminal matters.
• Orders for production.
• Notices to produce.
• Productions under UCPR 33.13

For subpoenas in civil matters (excluding probate and adoptions), if proposed access orders are requested on a subpoena:

• The form of the proposed access order should appear against a "packet number" on the daily spreadsheet.
• No appearance is required unless the parties want to object or change the access order.
• If there is no appearance, the proposed, otherwise known as default, access order will be made at the end of the list.
• The default access order only applies to the packet numbers referenced in the daily court list spreadsheet that is published the afternoon before the list. Requests to access late productions and packets that do not appear on the court list need to be made in court before the Registrar and all parties need to be made aware of any access application.

Please refer to Practice Note No. SC Gen 19 for further information.

The Registrar does not deal with consent orders in chambers. All orders are made in court by a Registrar at the return date including any adjournments.