When must a Texas nonparty production notice and subpoena be served?

Establish the controlling discovery endpoint and any specific nonparty discovery order.

Specify the requested materials with reasonable particularity and set a reasonable production time and place.

Plan actual notice service to the nonparty and all parties at least ten days before actual subpoena service, while preserving both outer timing conditions.

1. Establish the controlling discovery endpoint and any specific nonparty discovery order.
2. Apply all three requirements together. Notice must precede subpoena service by at least ten days. Notice and subpoena must meet the thirty-day-before-discovery-end limit. Their service must also leave reasonable time before the response. The rule does not define reasonable time as a universal fixed number.
3. Read any signed order and establish the actual required act, recipients and completion method.
4. Check closed days without silently shortening the required interval.

These periods exceed five days, so Rule 4’s exclusion of intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays for short periods does not apply. Do not move a latest date forward toward trial, a hearing or discovery closure merely because the nominal date is closed. That can leave less than the required lead time. Check Rule 4, the controlling order and actual court calendar. This source guide applies no automatic backward closed-day adjustment and supplies no computed last date.

Complete actual service under the applicable rule. Rule 21a distinguishes permitted service methods from filing. Electronic service completes on transmission to the serving party’s electronic filing service provider. Fax received after 5 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone is deemed served the next day. The three-day qualifying-mail addition in Rule 21a(c) concerns a prescribed period after service, not an automatic addition to a backward trial or discovery limit. Preserve recipients, method and completion evidence.

The single-event preset cannot resolve the reasonable-time condition, ten-day notice sequence, nonparty response, actual service or court directions. This compound procedure has no one fixed complete period and offers no computed result or paid calculation record.

Reasonable time is an additional condition

Rule 205.3(a) requires reasonable time before response in addition to the discovery-end limit. A nominal thirty-day subtraction does not decide that reasonableness.

Notice content and sequence

Rule 205.3(b) requires the nonparty’s name, reasonable production time and place, particularized items and testing details where applicable. Rule 205.2 requires notice on the nonparty and all parties at least ten days before subpoena service.

Another nonparty’s medical records

Rule 205.3(c) requires notice to the nonparty whose medical or mental-health records are sought, subject to the specified Rule 196.1(c)(2) exceptions.

Response and reasonable costs

The nonparty responds under Rule 176.6, rather than automatically receiving a party’s Rule 196 response period. Rule 205.3(f) requires reimbursement of the nonparty’s reasonable production costs.

• This guide does not establish the actual discovery endpoint, hearing or trial setting, service validity, court calendar or terms of an order.
• A timing explanation does not establish discovery compliance or permission to take the requested action.

• Establish the controlling discovery endpoint and any specific nonparty discovery order.
• Specify the requested materials with reasonable particularity and set a reasonable production time and place.
• Plan actual notice service to the nonparty and all parties at least ten days before actual subpoena service, while preserving both outer timing conditions.
• Rule 205.3(a) requires reasonable time before response in addition to the discovery-end limit. A nominal thirty-day subtraction does not decide that reasonableness.
• Rule 205.3(b) requires the nonparty’s name, reasonable production time and place, particularized items and testing details where applicable. Rule 205.2 requires notice on the nonparty and all parties at least ten days before subpoena service.
• Rule 205.3(c) requires notice to the nonparty whose medical or mental-health records are sought, subject to the specified Rule 196.1(c)(2) exceptions.
• The nonparty responds under Rule 176.6, rather than automatically receiving a party’s Rule 196 response period. Rule 205.3(f) requires reimbursement of the nonparty’s reasonable production costs.
• Serve the required notice on the nonparty and all parties and properly serve the subpoena under Rule 176.5. Rule 191.4(b)(1) requires filing the stated nonparty discovery materials. The nonparty’s response follows Rule 176.6. Preserve service, response and production evidence. Make produced material available to other parties on reasonable notice and provide requested copies at their expense under Rule 205.3(e).