Service of Court Documents

Subpoenas/Summons for Production of Documents must be served electronically (with a copy of the cheque for conduct money) to subpoena@mackillop.org.au.

Subpoenas/Summons for production of documents can be served by mail to the following address, but must also be sent electronically to subpoena@mackillop.org.au:

The Proper Officer Legal Services Department MacKillop Family Services Limited 237 Cecil Street SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC 3205

For a Subpoena/Summons which requires a MacKillop employee to attend and give evidence, the Subpoena/Summons must be served directly on the MacKillop employee and a copy of the Subpoena/Summons must be sent electronically to subpoena@mackillop.org.au. Conduct money, to cover the cost of the employee’s reasonable expenses to appear, as negotiated with MacKillop, must be paid in advance.

In order to comply with our Privacy Obligations, we are required to review and redact all records to remove third party information, before they are released in accordance with a Subpoena/Summons.

Therefore, for a Subpoena/Summons seeking production of documents, we require a minimum of 10 clear working days from the date a Subpoena/Summons is received to ensure that we are able to comply with the Subpoena/Summons.

We reserve the right to seek an extension of time or object to production of the documents where insufficient time is provided or the volume of records requested is considerable (see below).

The ‘Schedule of Documents’ in the Subpoena/Summons must list the documents that are required to be produced by MacKillop to the Court or Tribunal with sufficient detail to enable us to easily and accurately identify the relevant parties and documents being requested.

Details required to be included:

1. If you require records about a specific person, that person’s date of birth, full name and known aliases.
2. The name of the program and/or the geographic location of the service which was accessed by this person or in which the person worked.
3. The time period to which the request relates or the period that the individual is known or suspected to be involved with MacKillop. Open ended time periods will not be accepted.
4. Names or categories of documents required.

Please avoid general statements such as “all files and records relating to…” as this can often result in voluminous records being identified which may result in MacKillop not being able to process the request in time (even when 10 clear business days have been provided) and/or objecting to the scope of the Subpoena/Summons.

We reserve the right to seek an extension of time or object to production of the documents where the scope of the Subpoena/Summons is too broad and would result in unreasonable time or expense being incurred by MacKillop to comply.

This section only applies to requests that are not made by a client or on behalf of a client. It does not apply to Funding Agencies or Government Agencies.

Conduct money, to cover the cost of complying with the Subpoena/Summons, must be paid in advance and sent to the address for service above.

The minimum cost of handling a Subpoena/Summons to produce documents is $30 and parties must arrange for this to be paid. We will not process Subpoenas/Summons that are received without conduct money.

Basic conduct money of $30 covers documents for production up to 75 pages. If the documents requested are more than 75 pages, we may consider whether additional conduct money is required to comply with the Subpoena/Summons. An additional processing charge of $0.25 a page is charged. Courier costs will also be recovered where timeframes for production require documents to be couriered to Court. If you wish to be notified where more than 75 pages are identified or courier costs will be incurred, you must advise of this requirement in the covering letter serving the subpoena.

For a Subpoena/Summons to Attend, conduct money, to cover the cost of the employee’s reasonable expenses to appear, must be negotiated with MacKillop and paid in advance of their attendance.

The additional costs which we may also consider will be assessed at the following rates:

• professional staff time - $295 per hour;
• administrative staff time - $75 per hour
• photocopying documents - $0.80/page; and
• scanning documents - $0.10 per page.

Every Subpoena/Summons should be served with a cover letter or email that identifies the issuing party or their representatives name and contact details for queries arising from the Subpoena/Summons.

Any queries in relation to the Subpoenas/Summons should directed by email to subpoena@mackillop.org.au or to the MacKillop employee responsible for managing the process.