§ 22.004.Fee for Production or Certification of Documents

The production fee, and it is deliberately small.

A custodian who receives a request for production or certification of a record under a subpoena, a request for production, or other instrument compelling production is entitled to $1. If more than one record is produced or certified, the custodian is entitled to only one fee.

One dollar for the entire production, whether it is a page or a box. The fee marks the obligation rather than compensating the work.

Subsection (a-1), added in 2023, carves out municipalities. A municipality responding to such an instrument in relation to a matter to which it is not a party may impose a fee in the same amount and manner provided by the Public Information Act for a copy of public information — as if the production were a public information request.

The reasoning is visible: cities receive large volumes of third-party subpoenas for police, permit, and inspection records, and a dollar per production does not cover the copying. The carve-out is confined to matters in which the city is not a party, so a city defending a case pays its own discovery costs like any litigant.

Subsection (b) prevents double recovery: a custodian who produces or certifies but is not required to appear in court is not entitled to the witness fee.

Subsections (c) to (e): the requesting party pays at the time the instrument is served; the fee is taxed in the bill of costs; and it is in addition to any other fee imposed by law for production or certification.