Administrative Subpoena Response Guide

GEORGIA ADMINISTRATIVE SUBPOENA RESPONSE GUIDE

Intake, Authority Screen, Response Record, and Counsel Workspace

Do not send or file this packet. First identify the issuing body, exact
proceeding, statutory authority, governing rules and orders, service record,
return date, recipient, requested material, and available response route.

1. Matter and Deadline Control

O.C.G.A. § 50-13-13 does not itself state a universal ten-, twenty-, or
thirty-day response period. Use the actual subpoena and verify the agency's
enabling law, applicable rules, order, and service provisions before calculating
or changing a deadline.

2. Authority and Applicability Screen

Do not assume that every document labeled an “administrative subpoena” rests
only on § 50-13-13. Complete this screen from current official authority:

Verified § 50-13-13 baseline

For a covered contested case, current § 50-13-13(a)(6) authorizes the agency,
hearing officer, or an agency representative authorized to hold the hearing to
administer oaths and affirmations, sign and issue subpoenas, rule on offers of
proof, regulate the hearing, address identified motions, provide for testimony
by deposition or interrogatory, and address improper conduct in the hearing.

Section 50-13-13(a)(7) provides that subpoenas are issued without
discrimination between public and private parties. If a subpoena is disobeyed,
any party may apply to the superior court of the county where the contested case
is being heard for an obedience order. Failure to comply with that court order
may be punished as contempt. Witness attendance costs, including fees and
mileage, are computed and assessed as prescribed for civil cases in superior
court.

Section 50-13-13(b) separately addresses identified disobedience or resistance
in proceedings before an agency, hearing officer, or authorized agency
representative. It permits certification of the facts to the superior court of
the county where the offense is committed for appropriate action, including a
possible contempt finding, and authorizes writs of fieri facias to collect
fines imposed for violation of a lawful order.

These provisions do not answer every agency-specific question in the table and
do not themselves select a motion, deadline, service method, protective order,
fee award, or judicial-review result.

Revenue-case boundary

Current § 50-13-13(c), as revised by 2024 Ga. Laws 601 effective July 1, 2026,
excludes the described revenue-law cases from subsection (a) and the chapter's
other contested-case provisions when the case is subject to a later de novo
trial in superior court or the Georgia Tax Court under Chapter 5B of Title 15.
Do not use the former Georgia Tax Tribunal or former Chapter 13A reference.

3. Request Inventory

Record the exact subpoena language rather than paraphrasing a disputed request.
Attach the subpoena, all schedules, proof of service, correspondence, governing
order, and cited authority.

4. Preservation and Collection Plan

After counsel determines the appropriate preservation scope, record the
operational plan:

• ☐ suspend only the identified routine deletion, destruction, or overwrite
  processes within the reviewed scope

• ☐ preserve original metadata, file relationships, physical condition, and
  chain-of-custody information where relevant

• ☐ record unavailable, lost, transferred, destroyed, encrypted, or third-party
  material without guessing about cause or responsibility

• ☐ separate collection, review, redaction, production, and final disposition
  copies

• ☐ document every search location, search method, custodian interview, and
  collection exception

This packet does not decide the existence or scope of a legal preservation
duty, authorize access to restricted systems, or direct deletion of duplicates
or source material.

5. Legal and Confidentiality Review Matrix

List each issue for counsel review. A category name is not an assertion that a
protection applies or that withholding is permitted.

Before using a privilege log, redaction, confidentiality legend, protective
order, refusal, or reservation, verify that the controlling authority and
forum permit the selected procedure and identify the required detail, timing,
service, and consequences.

6. Response Decision Record

Potential routes for counsel to evaluate include:

• ☐ comply as written
• ☐ clarify scope or logistics without changing legal rights
• ☐ request an agreed extension or revised return arrangement
• ☐ produce an identified undisputed portion
• ☐ assert a verified objection or protection through the permitted method

• ☐ seek modification, a protective order, quash relief, or a stay through the
  verified decision-maker and procedure

• ☐ contest authority, service, jurisdiction, scope, or enforcement

• ☐ negotiate a written protocol for search, format, confidentiality, costs, or
  testimony

Checking a route does not make it available. Do not combine informal
correspondence with a required filing unless counsel confirms the effect.

7. Response Correspondence Workspace

Use only after the authority screen is complete and counsel approves the
selected route.

Header

Date: [__/__/____]

To: [ISSUER / AGENCY COUNSEL / OTHER VERIFIED RECIPIENT]

Delivery method and authority: [________________________________]

Matter: [________________________________]

Subpoena date and return date: [________________________________]

Proposed text

We represent [RECIPIENT] concerning the subpoena identified above.
Recipient records receipt on [DATE / TIME / METHOD] and responds through
the procedure identified in [AUTHORITY / RULE / ORDER].

Recipient's position as to each request is stated in the attached response
table. The accompanying material, if any, is identified by [INDEX / BATES OR
OTHER CONTROL]. Any objection, withholding, redaction, confidentiality
request, extension request, or proposed protocol is limited to the stated
facts and authority:

[________________________________]

Please direct communications concerning scheduling and delivery to
[NAME / CONTACT]. This correspondence does not alter the subpoena, return
date, order, or any right unless a person with authority confirms the change in
the required form.

Approved sender: [________________________________]

Signature: __________________________________

Date: [__/__/____]

8. Production and Testimony Logistics

Production index

Witness preparation record

Do not coach inaccurate testimony, alter source records, or represent that a
production is complete without a documented collection and review basis.

9. Enforcement and Court Route Screen

Section 50-13-13 identifies two superior-court routes described in Section 2,
but their counties and predicates differ. Complete the exact route before any
court paper is drafted:

This guide does not supply a superior-court caption or motion because
§ 50-13-13 alone does not establish every filing and procedural requirement for
the actual dispute. It also does not create automatic contempt, sanctions,
adverse inferences, default, license discipline, attorney fees, costs, or other
relief.

10. Completion and File Record

Final Review

• ☐ issuing authority, recipient, proceeding, service, return date, and exact
  requests verified

• ☐ current agency-specific statute, rules, orders, and amendment history
  checked from official sources

• ☐ § 50-13-13 applicability and the correct subsection identified

• ☐ no fixed response, objection, quash, extension, production, or review
  deadline assumed from this packet

• ☐ collection, privilege, confidentiality, health, personal-data, trade-secret,
  and access decisions approved under the controlling authority

• ☐ any scope change or extension confirmed by a person with authority in the
  required form

• ☐ production index, delivery proof, witness record, and retained copy complete

• ☐ any superior-court route, county, filing, service, remedy, and review right
  independently verified

• ☐ former Georgia Tax Tribunal references removed from any revenue-law issue

Preparing attorney: [________________________________]

Final reviewer: [________________________________]

Review date: [__/__/____]