Testifying at Trial

• You may not want to testify at trial if your testimony may hurt the person you are testifying against and that person is a relative or friend. In most cases, you do not have a choice, but you can file a motion to quash the subpoena. You will have to allege a conflict of interest or that you were not served properly.
  
  

Discovery

• You may be served with a subpoena to provide records for discovery and trial purposes, but the documents may be private in nature. If you are a company that has company secrets that are being subpoenaed, you can file a motion to quash a subpoena, citing trade secrets. If the subpoena is overly broad --- it asks for too much information, resulting in a "witch hunt," you can also request to quash the subpoena.
  
  

Motion to Quash

• Draft the motion to quash using the same heading that is on the subpoena. The heading contains the court name and jurisdiction, the parties' names and the case number. Set up the heading exactly as it is set up on the subpoena.
  
  Draft the opening paragraph to introduce yourself and the motion. Since you are neither defendant or plaintiff, the opening paragraph is a bit different. For example, "Comes now, the third-party movant, [YOUR NAME], and files this, his Motion to Quash Third Party Subpoena, and further states:"
  
  Draft the body of the motion. The body contains numbered paragraphs. Each paragraph contains one allegation or statement. The first paragraph states that you were served with a third-party subpoena and the date and time the subpoena was served. The second and subsequent paragraphs state the reasons that the court should quash the subpoena.
  
  

Considerations

• The court may or may not grant your motion, depending on the reasons for your request. Check your state's laws regarding the discovery process and the service process. If you can show that the request is too broad, you were not served properly, that the subpoena requests trade secrets or otherwise convince the court that you should not provide documents or testify, the court will grant the third-party motion to quash.