Subpoenas to produce documents

Service

The Legal Unit in the Office of General Counsel has the 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
Legal Unit, Office of General Counsel
University of Technology Sydney
15 Broadway
Ultimo NSW 2007

We prefer subpoenas to be 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
Office of General Counsel
University of Technology Sydney
15 Broadway
Ultimo NSW 2007

Post to

Legal Unit
Office of General Counsel
University of Technology Sydney
PO Box 123
Ultimo NSW 2007

Description of documents to be produced

UTS’s records management is devolved and does not hold documents centrally. Additional details will be required to locate the information requested.

Please include the following information where available:

  • identifying details about the person who is the subject of the subpoena, such as 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
  • 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 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 Accessing your information.

For third parties requesting access to information about another person, refer Third party requests. 

To verify someone’s qualifications issued by UTS, refer Qualification verification service.

To access the UTS Archives, refer Records and archives: UTS 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.