§ 2029.350.Foreign subpoenas; issuance of subpoena under this article

Going through the clerk isn't the only route to a valid California subpoena under this article. If a party to an out-of-state proceeding retains an attorney who is an active member of the State Bar, and that attorney receives the original or a true and correct copy of a foreign subpoena, the attorney can issue a California subpoena directly, bypassing the clerk's office entirely. That subpoena has to meet the same content requirements as one issued through the clerk: it must incorporate the foreign subpoena's terms, list counsel and unrepresented parties, carry the out-of-state case's caption and case number, name the relevant superior court, and follow the Judicial Council form.

This attorney-issuance shortcut has real limits, though. An attorney can't issue a subpoena under this section if the underlying foreign subpoena is based on another state's law that interferes with a person's right to seek or provide gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care, whether for that person or for a child in their care. And separately, an attorney can't issue a subpoena tied to a foreign penal civil action that would require disclosing information related to sensitive services, as insurance law defines that term. Both restrictions reflect a deliberate policy choice to keep California's own discovery machinery from being used to help enforce another state's restrictions on care that California treats differently.