§ 2020.410.Specificity of requests; form of production of electronically stored information;

A subpoena asking only for business records has its own formal recipe, distinct from one demanding testimony. The records themselves have to be identified either by describing each specific item or by reasonably particularizing each category, and if electronic records are wanted in a specific form, the subpoena has to say so. That specificity doesn't require identifying information that only the custodian's own filing system would know, like an internal policy number or the exact date a consumer dealt with the witness.

Unlike some other subpoenas, a records-only subpoena doesn't need an affidavit or declaration showing good cause; it goes directly to the custodian of records or another qualified person, and it can't demand compliance any sooner than 20 days after issuance or 15 days after service, whichever comes later. When the records are personal records about a consumer or an employee, sourced through the consumer-notice or employee-notice statutes elsewhere in the code, service has to come with either proof that the consumer or employee got notice, or that person's written authorization releasing the records.