Deposition subpoenas in Nevada: who issues them, what they must say, the fee that travels with them, and how out-of-state cases reach a Las Vegas witness

Notice versus subpoena: when a deposition needs one

A party to a Nevada lawsuit is brought to a deposition by a notice of deposition served on the other parties. A witness who is not a party is a different matter. NRCP 30(a)(1) says that "The deponent's attendance may be compelled by subpoena under Rule 45." Without a subpoena, a nonparty witness has been invited, and an invitation is not enforceable.

The rules put the risk of skipping that step on the noticing party. Under NRCP 30(g), a party who attends a deposition expecting it to go forward may recover reasonable expenses, including attorney fees, if the noticing party failed to "serve a subpoena on a nonparty deponent, who consequently did not attend."

The two documents usually travel together. The subpoena commands the witness; the notice of deposition tells every other party. NRCP 30(b)(1) requires "not less than 14 days' written notice to every other party," stating the time and place and, if known, the deponent's name and address. If a subpoena duces tecum will be served on the witness, NRCP 30(b)(2) adds that the materials designated for production "must be listed in the notice or in an attachment."

A subpoena to a nonparty organization has one more job. NRCP 30(b)(6) provides that "A subpoena must advise a nonparty organization of its duty to make this designation," meaning its duty to designate the people who will testify for it. Our Rule 30(b)(6) guide covers that process.

Who issues a Nevada deposition subpoena

NRCP 45(a)(2) is one sentence: "A subpoena must issue from the court where the action is pending." For a case in the Eighth Judicial District Court, that is the Clark County district court, whether the witness lives in Las Vegas, Henderson or Mesquite.

Rule 45(a)(3) gives two routes to a signed subpoena. The clerk "must issue a subpoena, signed but otherwise in blank, to a party who requests it," and that party completes it before service. Alternatively, "An attorney also may issue and sign a subpoena if the attorney is authorized to practice in the issuing court." Most Las Vegas deposition subpoenas we see are attorney-issued. Whether a particular out-of-state lawyer in a Nevada case fits that sentence, or should have local counsel sign, is a question for Nevada counsel.

What the subpoena must contain

NRCP 45(a)(1)(A) lists four requirements for every subpoena: the issuing court; the title and case number of the action with the name and address of the party or attorney responsible for the subpoena; the command, at a specified time and place, to attend and testify, to produce designated documents, electronically stored information or tangible things, or to permit inspection of premises; and the full text of Rule 45(c) and (d). That last item means the witness protections are printed on the subpoena itself.

Deposition subpoenas carry one requirement that trial subpoenas do not. NRCP 45(a)(1)(B) provides: "A subpoena commanding attendance at a deposition must state the method for recording the testimony." That is the same choice the noticing party makes in the notice under NRCP 30(b)(3)(A), where "testimony may be recorded by audio, audiovisual, or stenographic means" and "The noticing party bears the recording costs." If the deposition will be video recorded as well as stenographically reported, the subpoena should say both.

Documents can be commanded in the same subpoena as the testimony or in a separate one (Rule 45(a)(1)(C)), and a command to produce "requires the responding person to permit inspection, copying, testing, or sampling of the materials" (Rule 45(a)(1)(D)).

• The issuing court, and the title and case number of the action.
• The name and address of the party or attorney responsible for the subpoena.
• The command: attend and testify, produce documents or things, or permit inspection, at a specified time and place.
• The full text of Rule 45(c) and (d).
• For a deposition, the method of recording the testimony.
• If documents are commanded, the designated materials, which NRCP 30(b)(2) also requires in the deposition notice or an attachment.

Service, and the fee that must be tendered with it

NRCP 45(b)(1) opens with who may serve: "Any person who is at least 18 years old and not a party may serve a subpoena." A professional process server is common but not required; a paralegal or office runner who is not a party qualifies. The same subsection adds the tender requirement: "If the subpoena requires that person's attendance, the serving party must tender the fee for 1 day's attendance and the mileage allowed by law." The only exception is a subpoena that issues on behalf of the State or its officers or agencies.

The rule does not state a dollar figure; it points to the statute. NRS 50.225 entitles a witness attending "in obedience to a subpoena" to "a fee of $25 for each day's attendance, including Sundays and holidays," plus mileage. The default mileage rate is "the standard mileage reimbursement rate for which a deduction is allowed for the purposes of federal income tax" for each mile necessarily traveled by the shortest and most practical route. A board of county commissioners may instead adopt the private-conveyance rate set by the State Board of Examiners. Nevada publishes no mileage number of its own; the figure is the IRS standard rate in force on the date of travel.

One caveat belongs on the record. NRS 50.225 is written around attendance at "the courts of this State" and proceedings before a court of record, master, judicial officer, commissioner, justice of the peace or grand jury. Whether a deposition fits those words, and therefore exactly what fee is "allowed by law" under NRCP 45(b)(1), is a question for your attorney. The $25 fee plus mileage is the fee practitioners tender in Nevada; this page takes no position on the statutory fit.

Where may a subpoena be served? NRCP 45(b)(2): "a subpoena may be served at any place within the state," subject to the 100-mile protection described next. Service in another state follows that state's law (Rule 45(b)(3)). Proof of service, when needed, is a server-certified statement of the date, manner and persons served, filed with the issuing court (Rule 45(b)(6)).

The 100-mile rule and the court's duty to quash

NRCP 45(c)(3)(A) names four situations in which, on timely motion, the issuing court "must quash or modify the subpoena." The subpoena "(i) fails to allow reasonable time for compliance; (ii) requires a person to travel to a place more than 100 miles from the place where that person resides, is employed, or regularly transacts business in person, unless the person is commanded to attend trial within Nevada; (iii) requires disclosure of privileged or other protected matter and no exception or waiver applies; or (iv) subjects a person to an undue burden."

Read the travel ground carefully. The exception is for attendance at trial within Nevada. A deposition is not a trial, so a deposition subpoena that pulls a witness more than 100 miles from home, work or regular business is one the court must quash or modify on motion. Reno and Las Vegas are well over 100 miles apart, so a Washoe County witness commanded to a Las Vegas conference room, or the reverse, is squarely inside the rule. Whether a remote deposition under NRCP 30(b)(4), which the rule deems to take place "where the deponent answers the questions," changes that analysis in a given case is a question for counsel.

Rule 45(c)(3)(B) adds two grounds on which the court "may" quash or modify: a trade secret or other confidential commercial information, or an unretained expert's opinion. In those situations Rule 45(c)(3)(C) lets the court instead order appearance or production under conditions, if the serving party shows a substantial need and ensures the person "will be reasonably compensated."

Behind all of this sits a general duty in NRCP 45(c)(1): "A party or attorney responsible for issuing and serving a subpoena must take reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden or expense on a person subject to the subpoena." The issuing court "must enforce this duty" and may impose a sanction "which may include lost earnings and reasonable attorney fees."

Subpoenas duces tecum: the 7-day notice and two objection windows

A subpoena duces tecum commands a person to bring or produce documents, electronically stored information or tangible things. Nevada attaches a fixed waiting period to pretrial document subpoenas that the federal rule does not. NRCP 45(a)(4)(A): if the subpoena commands production or inspection before trial, "then at least 7 days before it is served on the person to whom it is directed, a notice and a copy of the subpoena must be served on each party to permit a party to object to and seek issuance of a protective order against the subpoena during that time."

That opens the first objection window, which belongs to the other parties. Under Rule 45(a)(4)(B), a party who believes the subpoena will require disclosure of privileged, confidential or other protected matter may file and serve written objections and a motion for a protective order under Rule 26(c) "within 7 days after being served with notice and a copy of the subpoena." If that is done on time, "the subpoena may not be served, unless revised to eliminate the objected-to commands, until the court that issued the subpoena has ruled on the objections and motion."

The second window belongs to the person who receives the subpoena. NRCP 45(c)(2)(B) lets that person, or anyone claiming a proprietary interest in the materials, serve a written objection "before the earlier of the time specified for compliance or 14 days after the subpoena is served." Once an objection is made, the serving party may not inspect or copy the materials "except by order of the court that issued the subpoena," and any order compelling production "must protect the person commanded to produce or permit inspection from significant expense resulting from compliance."

A person commanded only to produce does not have to show up (Rule 45(c)(2)(A)). When records arrive without an appearance, the issuing party must promptly copy them and serve them on every other party, and may serve a statement of the reasonable cost, which the receiving parties "must promptly pay." Beyond the 7-day and 14-day periods, the rule sets no fixed compliance deadline; it requires only "reasonable time for compliance."

If the witness does not appear: contempt and costs

NRCP 45(e) supplies the enforcement: "Failure by any person without adequate excuse to obey a subpoena served upon that person may be deemed a contempt of the court that issued the subpoena." On a motion for a protective order, a motion to compel, or a motion to quash or modify, the court may apply Rule 37(a)(5) in awarding the prevailing person reasonable expenses.

When a subpoenaed witness does not arrive, counsel often asks the court reporter to open the record, state the appearances, note the time and the nonappearance, and close the record. That short transcript becomes the exhibit for any later motion. Remember the other side of the same coin in NRCP 30(g): if the nonparty did not attend because no subpoena was served, the parties who showed up may recover their expenses from the noticing party.

Out-of-state cases: subpoenaing a Las Vegas witness under the UIDDA

Las Vegas witnesses are routinely needed in cases pending in California, Arizona, Utah and beyond. Nevada handles those requests under the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, codified at NRS 53.100 to 53.200. NRS 53.170 provides that a party "must submit a foreign subpoena to the clerk of a court in the county in which discovery is sought to be conducted in this State," that the request "does not constitute an appearance in the courts of this State," and that the clerk "shall promptly issue a subpoena for service upon the person to which the foreign subpoena is directed." The Nevada subpoena must incorporate the terms of the foreign subpoena and list all counsel of record and any unrepresented party.

From there the Nevada rules take over. NRS 53.180: the clerk-issued subpoena "must be served and enforced in compliance with Rule 45 of the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure." NRS 53.190: any application for a protective order, or to enforce, quash or modify it, must be "submitted to the court in the county in which discovery is to be conducted." NRCP 45(b)(5) says the same thing from the rule's side.

Clark County has written the paperwork into its local rules. EDCR 2.80, amended effective June 25, 2024, requires a party seeking a foreign deposition subpoena to present and tender to the clerk three things: copies of the papers required by the UIDDA; a cover sheet in the form required by EDCR 7.20, captioned "Eighth Judicial District Court" rather than the foreign court and described as "Request for Foreign Deposition Subpoena"; and "Such filing fees as may be required by law." The clerk collects the fee and assigns a case number, subpoenas then issue and are enforced under NRCP 45, and every later proceeding on the request is filed under that case number.

Washoe County has no counterpart rule. The Second Judicial District Court's local rules do not mention subpoenas at all, so a foreign subpoena for a Reno witness proceeds on the statute and NRCP 45 alone; ask that court's clerk about its filing practice before you send the papers.

Two more provisions matter once the deposition is under way. NRCP 30(d)(3)(A) allows a motion to terminate or limit an abusive deposition to be filed "where the deposition is being taken" when it proceeds under an out-of-state subpoena. And the reporter must still be a Nevada certified court reporter: NRS 656.145 makes it unlawful to practice court reporting in this State without the Board's certificate, and NAC 656.320(2) lets a Nevada reporter or firm work on behalf of an out-of-state firm "in any proceeding conducted in this State as a result of an action commenced or maintained in a foreign jurisdiction" so long as Nevada's rules are followed.

How NRCP 45 differs from the federal rule

Nevada's 2019 restyling (ADKT 0522, effective March 1, 2019) modeled the NRCP on the 2018 federal rules while keeping Nevada-specific provisions. For subpoenas, two differences stand out. Cases in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada follow FRCP 45, not these provisions.

• Geographic limit. NRCP 45(c)(3)(A)(ii) requires the court to quash a subpoena that makes a person travel more than 100 miles from home, work or regular place of business, "unless the person is commanded to attend trial within Nevada," and NRCP 45(b)(2) allows service "at any place within the state." FRCP 45(c)(1) uses 100 miles, or anywhere within the state for a party, a party's officer, or trial attendance without substantial expense.
• Prior notice for a subpoena duces tecum. NRCP 45(a)(4)(A) requires notice and a copy to each party "at least 7 days before it is served," with the 7-day objection window in NRCP 45(a)(4)(B). FRCP 45(a)(4) requires notice and a copy before service, with no fixed period.

From the reporter's chair

The subpoena is the first document we read when a nonparty witness is on the calendar, because it tells us the recording method the parties expect. If the subpoena says stenographic and the notice adds audiovisual, or the reverse, we raise it at scheduling rather than at the table. The officer's on-the-record opening under NRCP 30(b)(5)(A) then states the officer's name and business address, the date, time and place, the deponent's name, the administration of the oath or affirmation, and the identity of everyone present.

Documents produced under a subpoena duces tecum become exhibits in the ordinary way. Under NRCP 30(f)(2), documents produced for inspection during a deposition must, on a party's request, be marked for identification and attached to the deposition, and a producing person who wants to keep originals may offer verified copies. In Clark County, Administrative Order 22-08 adds that any document to be used as an exhibit must be disclosed before the deposition; records that arrive under subpoena on the morning of the deposition are a common source of friction, and a short break to copy and distribute them protects the record.

Western Reporting Services has reported depositions in Las Vegas since 1990 with stenographic and voice-writing reporters certified by the Nevada Certified Court Reporters' Board. We cover the Las Vegas valley, host depositions in our conference rooms, provide legal videography and remote depositions, and arrange interpreters by referral. We do not prepare or serve subpoenas, but we are glad to confirm the recording method and logistics before the witness arrives.

Currency of the rules quoted

Rule text on this page is the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure as amended through October 31, 2025; Rules 30 and 45 were last amended effective March 1, 2019, under ADKT 0522. NRS 50.225 is quoted from the 2026R1 revision, NRS 53 and NRS 656 from the 2025 revision, NAC 656 from the page revised 2026-04-13, and the Eighth Judicial District Court Rules as amended through October 31, 2025. The federal comparison uses FRCP 45 as of December 1, 2025. Rules change; confirm the current text with counsel before relying on any deadline.

Common questions

Does a party to the case need a subpoena to be deposed?

A party is deposed on a notice of deposition served on all parties with not less than 14 days' written notice under NRCP 30(b)(1). A subpoena is the tool for compelling a nonparty; NRCP 30(a)(1) says a deponent's attendance "may be compelled by subpoena under Rule 45." Documents from a party deponent can be requested with the notice under Rule 34, as NRCP 30(b)(2) notes.

Who can serve a Nevada deposition subpoena?

Any person who is at least 18 years old and not a party (NRCP 45(b)(1)). A licensed process server is common practice, not a rule requirement. The server must tender the 1-day attendance fee and mileage when the subpoena requires attendance.

How much is the witness fee?

NRS 50.225 sets a fee of $25 for each day's attendance plus mileage, by default at the federal standard mileage rate for income-tax purposes, for each mile necessarily traveled by the shortest practical route. The statute is written around court attendance; whether it fits a deposition exactly is a question for counsel. $25 plus mileage is the fee practitioners tender in Nevada.

Can a Reno witness be subpoenaed to a deposition in Las Vegas?

On timely motion the issuing court must quash or modify a subpoena that requires a person to travel more than 100 miles from where that person resides, is employed or regularly transacts business in person, unless the person is commanded to attend trial within Nevada (NRCP 45(c)(3)(A)(ii)). The trial exception does not cover depositions, and Reno is well over 100 miles from Las Vegas. Depositions of Washoe County witnesses are usually taken there or by remote means on stipulation; ask counsel how the rule applies to your witness.

How far in advance must a subpoena for documents be noticed?

For a subpoena commanding production or inspection before trial, a notice and a copy must be served on each party at least 7 days before the subpoena is served on the witness (NRCP 45(a)(4)(A)). A party objecting on privilege or confidentiality grounds must file written objections and a motion for a protective order within 7 days after receiving that notice (NRCP 45(a)(4)(B)). The witness may object before the earlier of the compliance date or 14 days after service (Rule 45(c)(2)(B)).

Our case is pending in California. How do we subpoena a witness in Las Vegas?

Through Nevada's Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, NRS 53.100 to 53.200. Submit the California subpoena to the clerk of the court in the Nevada county where the discovery will take place; the clerk issues a Nevada subpoena incorporating its terms (NRS 53.170). In Clark County, EDCR 2.80 requires the UIDDA papers, a cover sheet captioned "Eighth Judicial District Court" and described as "Request for Foreign Deposition Subpoena," and the filing fee. The subpoena is then served and enforced under NRCP 45 (NRS 53.180), and any motion to quash goes to the Nevada court in that county (NRS 53.190).

What happens if a subpoenaed witness simply does not show up?

Under NRCP 45(e), failure without adequate excuse to obey a subpoena may be deemed a contempt of the issuing court. Counsel typically asks the court reporter to go on the record, note the appearances, the time and the nonappearance, and close the record so there is a transcript for the motion that follows.

Does the subpoena have to say the deposition will be video recorded?

Yes. NRCP 45(a)(1)(B) requires a subpoena commanding attendance at a deposition to state the method for recording the testimony. The notice of deposition states the same method under NRCP 30(b)(3)(A), and any party may add another method with prior notice at its own expense under NRCP 30(b)(3)(B). The two documents should match.