San Diego State University - Minds That Move the World

Risk Management

Release of University Records and Information

Handling Subpoenas, Summons and Complaints

Skip repeated menu and go directly to page content.

Business and Financial Affairs > Administration > Risk Management > 
SDSU architectural details
Policies and Procedures

There are numerous occasions when the university receives official requests for information about students, faculty, staff, and information about incidents on campus. These requests often come in the form of subpoenas, summons, complaints or other court orders, and generally require a time-sensitive response. They also require that a special process be followed to ensure full compliance with all legal requirements.

In order to ensure compliance with these requests, the following procedures must be followed.

In accordance with the campus administrative structure, the following individuals have been designated by the appropriate vice president as the University Records Custodian for the area indicated. A subpoena calling for production of documents shall be served upon the custodian of the records requested, although if it is delivered to the department where the documents are located, that shall be considered sufficient. These persons or their designees will be charged with directing and gathering the appropriate information to satisfy the request. Persons attempting to serve a subpoena or other court orders shall be directed to one of the following offices, hereby designated as the Custodian of Record:


Subpoenas

Subpoenas seek either documents or the presence of an individual, and are generally served in areas that maintain custody of records; i.e., Health Services, Admissions and Records, the Center for Human Resources, and Payroll Services. Valid subpoenas must be responded to in a timely manner. Subpoenas calling for a production of records shall be served upon the Custodian of Records requested.

Should SDSU/CSU be a party to the action indicated in the subpoena the subpoena shall be served to the Chancellor’s Office and the response will be coordinated by the CSU attorney assigned to the case. Should SDSU not be a party to the proceeding indicated in the subpoena, the Custodian of Record as assigned above shall be responsible for coordinating the timely response to such subpoenas.


Handling Subpoenas

Tools for CSU/SDSU staff assigned to process or to respond to subpoena materials.

Questions or requests for additional information, please contact Risk Management at 619-594-4664.


Summons and Complaints

The following procedures deal solely with summons and complaints, not with subpoenas.

A summons and complaint is the document that begins a legal action. Summons and complaints will come from either a state court or a federal court and will be served either by mail or in person. They shall be handled as follows:

  1. State courts service by mail — the summons will be accompanied by a form called “NOTICE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SERVICE.” The summons and complaint and the notice and acknowledgment of service, unsigned, are to be sent to the General Counsel’s Office immediately with a note indicating on what date and by whom they were received. In addition to the General Counsel’s Office, a copy of all correspondence shall be forwarded to Risk Management Services, CLA Building 98, Room B1-35.

    The Attorney General’s Office advises agencies not to sign these forms. The complaint shall be forwarded from the General Counsel’s Office to the person selected as trial counsel, where the acknowledgment forms shall be signed.

  2. Personal service — complaints may be addressed either to the Trustees of the California State University, the University, to an individual, or to all three. In a proper service, only one entity or party is served for each copy of the summons, as it must designate the capacity with which a person is being served.

  3. Where service is attempted on the trustees — no one on the campus has authority to accept service for the trustees. If the person who serves the process is attempting to make service on the trustees, that person may be informed that the person being addressed has no authority to accept service on behalf of the trustees and that proper service must be made in accordance with the government code.

    In addition, service may be made at the General Counsel’s Office of The California State University. See Government Code Section §955.4, which calls for service of complaints on the Attorney General's Office.

  4. Where service is attempted on state university — SDSU is not a legal entity, therefore it does not have the capacity to be sued. However, many people incorrectly address summons and complaints to the campus. The person attempting service shall be informed that service must conform with the Government Code; i.e., served on the Attorney General’s Office or, as an alternative, the General Counsel’s Office.

  5. Service on an individual — a named individual is properly served if they are given a copy of the summons and complaint. In any case, the summons and complaint shall be mailed to the General Counsel’s Office immediately, along with a note stating the details of the service; i.e. date of service, to whom served (and a copy of the correspondence shall be submitted directly to SDSU Risk Management.

    Either then or after consultation with the General Counsel’s Office, any individuals named in the caption of the action and served will be asked to make a written request for defense by the Attorney General. Please contact SDSU Risk Management, for information on how to make the written request. In addition, alert the General Counsel’s Office promptly if an action against an employee may involve fraud, corruption, or malice by the employee; or if the action relates to activities unrelated to the person’s employment status with the CSU.

  6. Federal Court (United States District Court) service by mail — the same procedures as specified in bullet item, “State courts service by mail” above shall be followed.

  7. Personal service — the federal court has a form of notice and acknowledgment of receipt of summon or to their relationship to the entity, and their authority to receive service of process. Following the same procedure as outlined in bullet item, “Where service is attempted on the trustees,” displayed above. Again, no one at the campus has authority to accept on behalf of the trustees. The lack of authority would be noted on the form given to the server, and all of the documents shall be sent to the General Counsel’ Office.

  8. All other correspondence — often a complaint is received which is puzzling, or difficult to understand. This is particularly the case where a plaintiff is not represented by legal counsel. You should not delay transmitting the summons and complaint to the General Counsel’s Office during the investigation; any investigation that is to be made of the facts of a complaint shall be made after the summons and complaint has been forwarded to that office. This will assist the attorneys in securing timely representation.

  9. Service of summons generally — defense by attorney general except as provided in Sections §955.6 and §955.8 of the government code: “Service of summons in all actions on claims against the State shall be made on the Attorney General.” The attorney General shall defend all actions on claims against the state. [Added by State of California, 1968, c. 1715, p. 3383, S2.]

Law Revision Commission Comment

This section is the same in substance as Government Code [former] Section §649, except that [former] Section §649 requires service on both the Governor and the Attorney General.