I'm the owner of an LLC in CA. We received a supoena for a civil case filed in Florida. The plaintiff is a former employee that I fired at the end of last year. He is apparently suing a Florida company in a civil matter.
The defendant, this Florida company, issued the supoena, and it was issued by the US District Court Southern District of California. The supoena state that:
"You are commanded to produce and permit inspection and copying of the following documents:
Any and all files, records, and/or other documents, without limitation or exception, pertaining to the employment, applications for employment, performance, reviews, performance evaluations, salary increases or decreases, list of duties for positions, resumens, documents evidencing days and times worked, overtime, abscenses, [ the list goes on and on ... ] the entire personnel file and any and all other documents related to [name of former employee."
It also states "records may be mailed in lieu of appearance".
My questions:
1. Am I legally required to respond? I suspect the answer is yes.
2. Do I really have to mail in a stack of documents to some lawyer in Florida? How about I tell them I'll make the documents available if they want to come here and copy them? Would that satisfy the supoena? I doubt they'd actually fly out here to do that. Would that get me off the hook?
3. The list of documents in the supoena is overwhelming, and I want to do as little as possible. I don't have everything they are asking for. Since this employee was fired for cause, I have some notes and documentation about his poor performance, and I'm sure that's what they are mostly after. What would be a reasonable response? A copy of some pay stubs, my notes about his termination, his original offer letter, and that's it?
Thanks for the advice.
The defendant, this Florida company, issued the supoena, and it was issued by the US District Court Southern District of California. The supoena state that:
"You are commanded to produce and permit inspection and copying of the following documents:
Any and all files, records, and/or other documents, without limitation or exception, pertaining to the employment, applications for employment, performance, reviews, performance evaluations, salary increases or decreases, list of duties for positions, resumens, documents evidencing days and times worked, overtime, abscenses, [ the list goes on and on ... ] the entire personnel file and any and all other documents related to [name of former employee."
It also states "records may be mailed in lieu of appearance".
My questions:
1. Am I legally required to respond? I suspect the answer is yes.
2. Do I really have to mail in a stack of documents to some lawyer in Florida? How about I tell them I'll make the documents available if they want to come here and copy them? Would that satisfy the supoena? I doubt they'd actually fly out here to do that. Would that get me off the hook?
3. The list of documents in the supoena is overwhelming, and I want to do as little as possible. I don't have everything they are asking for. Since this employee was fired for cause, I have some notes and documentation about his poor performance, and I'm sure that's what they are mostly after. What would be a reasonable response? A copy of some pay stubs, my notes about his termination, his original offer letter, and that's it?
Thanks for the advice.