Subpoenas and requests for information
Subpoenas to produce documents
Service
The Legal Unit, within the Office of General Counsel, has authority to accept service of subpoenas, summonses, statutory notices and orders issued by a court or tribunal (subpoenas) seeking production of documents and things in the possession or control of the University of Technology Sydney.
Subpoenas to produce should be addressed as follows:
The Proper Officer
University of Technology Sydney
Legal Unit, Office of General Counsel
15 Broadway
Ultimo NSW 2009
We prefer if subpoenas are served by email at: gc@uts.edu.au
If subpoenas are served by email, we do not require a hard copy to be served.
Subpoenas may also be served by one of the following methods:
Hand deliver to Legal Unit | Post to Legal Unit |
Description of documents to be produced
The university’s records management is devolved, and we do not hold documents centrally. Additional details will be required to locate the information requested.
Please include the following information where available:
- identifying details about any person who is the subject of the subpoena, such as a date of birth or student or employee number
- the dates or time period for which documents are required
- the type of information being sought, for example, academic record, assessment results, employee payment summaries etc.
- any specific areas from which the information is being sought, for example, student administration, student misconduct and appeals, health services, a specific faculty or human resources.
The university often receives subpoenas seeking information about students such as 'all transcripts, results, timetables, class records, attendance records, correspondence, medical records, file records and all other information relevant to attendance'.
The scope of these requests, such as timetables, class records and attendance records, is very wide and seeks information from across the whole university that is not held within a central location. These subpoenas impose an onerous obligation on the university.
If you do not intend the subpoena to be so wide, please limit the request to specific information that is relevant and that you actually need. Please also reduce your request to focus only on a relevant time period.
Conduct money and reasonable expenses
Conduct money should accompany a subpoena to produce and must be payable to the University of Technology Sydney. Credit card details are not to be provided by email.
The university has assessed the minimum cost of handling a subpoena to produce to be $100. This amount is payable when serving the subpoena or at a reasonable time before the university is required to comply. It includes the cost of staff time in locating and searching records and the production of documents.
The conduct money should be paid electronically using the link to our secure payment gateway: Pay now
If the request requires the production of extensive documents, or a number of files or areas to be searched, or otherwise takes up staff members' time so that it will cost more than the conduct money provided to produce the documents, the university will claim the ‘reasonable expenses’ of complying with the subpoena.
In this case, the university may contact the issuing party and advise of the estimated cost of compliance, including staff time.
Subpoenas to give evidence
The Legal Unit does not accept service of subpoenas and notices addressed to staff members to give evidence as part of court or tribunal proceedings.
These subpoenas and notices must be served directly on the individual staff member required to give evidence.
Other requests for information
For individuals wishing to access their own personal information, refer to Accessing your information.
For third parties requesting access to information about another person, refer to Third party requests.
To verify someone’s qualifications issued by UTS, refer to the Qualification verification service.
To access the UTS Archives, refer to UTS Archives under Records and archives.
For other information requests, including access applications under the Government Information (Public Access) Act, refer Applying for access to information.
Note that a GIPA request will be refused if the information request has, or is, the subject of a subpoena and already available to the applicant as a result, or if it is reasonably believed that the party may be able to apply to the court for information. In such cases, refer to the above requirements to request a subpoena.
