How to Fill Out and Serve an AAA Arbitration Subpoena Form

To issue an AAA arbitration subpoena form, download the correct version from the American Arbitration Association — one form compels a witness to testify at a hearing, the other compels production of documents — fill in the case and recipient details, submit it to your arbitrator for signature, and then have it personally served on the non-party under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 along with the statutory witness fee. Without the arbitrator’s signature, the document has no legal force; without proper personal service and fee tender, a court will not enforce it.

Pick the Right Form First

The AAA publishes two separate subpoena forms, and choosing wrong wastes time. Both are available on the AAA’s commercial arbitration rules and forms page at adr.org, or you can request them from the case manager assigned to your matter.

A Subpoena for Hearing requires the recipient to appear, in person or by video, and give testimony under oath before the arbitrator. Use this when a witness has firsthand knowledge and you need their spoken account on the record.
A Subpoena for Documents (duces tecum) requires a person or organization to produce specific records such as bank statements, contracts, emails, or internal reports.

You can combine the two by requesting that the witness appear at the hearing and bring documents with them. That combined approach also happens to be the safest way to get documents from a non-party, for reasons covered further below.

Information the Form Requires

Every field matters. A wrong name or a vague description gives the recipient grounds to challenge the subpoena or ignore it. Gather the following before you start filling anything in.

The AAA case number, exactly as assigned on your initial filing documents and AAA correspondence.
The full legal names of the claimant and respondent, spelled precisely as they appear in the demand for arbitration or the answering statement.
The recipient’s full legal name and a physical address where papers can be hand-delivered. A P.O. box will not work.
The name of the presiding arbitrator or panel chair, since the form requires their signature to have legal force.
The date, time, and location of compliance. For a hearing subpoena this is when and where the witness must appear; for a document subpoena this is the deadline and method for production.

Describe Documents With Enough Specificity

Vague requests draw objections. “All financial records” invites a challenge for overbreadth. Describe each category narrowly enough that a stranger could locate the exact files: include date ranges, account numbers, project names, and other identifying details. For example: “Monthly account statements for checking account ending in 4872, held at First National Bank, from January 2023 through December 2024.”

AAA guidance directs that document requests be “narrowly tailored and proportionate to the disputes at hand” and limited to materials “relevant and material to the resolution of the issues in dispute.”¹ When the request goes to a non-party, be ready to explain why you cannot get the same records from the other side in the arbitration.

Electronic Records

If what you need lives in electronic form, AAA Commercial Rule R-23 directs that it be produced “in the form most convenient and economical for the party in possession,” unless the arbitrator finds good cause for a different format.² Specify the type of electronic records you want, name the custodian if you know it, and propose reasonable search terms or date ranges. Asking a small company to search a decade of server data with no parameters will almost always draw an undue burden objection.

Get the Arbitrator’s Signature

Unlike federal court practice, where attorneys often issue subpoenas on their own authority, an arbitration subpoena must be signed by the arbitrator. Section 7 of the Federal Arbitration Act states that the summons “shall issue in the name of the arbitrator or arbitrators, or a majority of them, and shall be signed by the arbitrators, or a majority of them.”³ Without that signature, the form is a request with no teeth.

Submit the completed form to the arbitrator. AAA Commercial Rule R-35(d) provides that “an arbitrator or other person authorized by law to subpoena witnesses or documents may do so upon the request of any party or independently.”² The arbitrator reviews the request for relevance, proportionality, and burden, and can narrow or deny it. Once signed, the form becomes an enforceable order, and that signature is what local courts will look for if enforcement becomes necessary.

Can You Get Documents Before the Hearing?

A common assumption is that a document subpoena works like civil discovery, letting you get records weeks in advance. In arbitration, that depends on where your case is seated. The Second, Third, and Ninth Circuits have read Section 7 to authorize compelling a non-party only to bring documents to the hearing itself. As the Third Circuit put it, the statute “clearly applies only to situations in which the non-party accompanies the items to the arbitration proceeding.”⁴

The Eighth Circuit went the other way, reasoning that “implicit in an arbitration panel’s power to subpoena relevant documents for production at a hearing is the power to order the production of relevant documents for review by a party prior to the hearing.”⁴ Outside the Eighth Circuit, the safer route is to subpoena the non-party to appear at the hearing and bring the documents.

Serve the Subpoena Yourself

The AAA does not serve subpoenas. Once the arbitrator returns the signed form, delivery is entirely your responsibility. Section 7 requires that the summons “be served in the same manner as subpoenas to appear and testify before the court,” which means Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45.³

Rule 45(b)(1) requires “delivering a copy to the named person.”⁵ Someone must physically hand the subpoena to the recipient. Email and regular mail do not satisfy this. Most parties hire a professional process server or use a sheriff’s deputy. Process server fees usually run between $50 and $200, depending on location and number of attempts.

Witness Fee and Mileage

At the time of service, tender the witness fee. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1821, the attendance fee is $40 per day.⁶ If the witness drives to the hearing, you also owe mileage at the GSA rate, which is 72.5 cents per mile as of January 2026.⁷ Hand the fee to the witness together with the subpoena. Failing to tender the fee can invalidate the service.

The 100-Mile Geographic Limit

Because arbitration subpoenas borrow Rule 45’s service requirements, they inherit its geographic reach. A subpoena can only compel a person to attend a hearing within 100 miles of where that person lives, works, or regularly does business. Beyond that radius the subpoena is likely unenforceable. For a distant witness you may need a remote appearance or a special hearing session closer to them, which the arbitrator can authorize but a subpoena alone cannot force.

Proof of Service

The person who delivers the subpoena should complete a proof of service documenting the date, time, and place of delivery, and confirming that the witness fee was tendered. File it with the AAA case manager. If the witness later fails to appear, this document is the foundation for any enforcement action. Without it, a court has no evidence that service was properly completed.

If the Recipient Objects or Refuses

A non-party who believes the subpoena is improper should raise the objection with the arbitral panel first. The Second Circuit has held that the panel is responsible for ruling on objections to its own subpoenas, and a district court can properly decline to hear a non-party’s motion to quash at that stage.⁸ The recipient writes to the arbitrator and asks for the subpoena to be quashed or narrowed. Common grounds include undue burden, overbreadth, irrelevance, privilege, and geographic overreach beyond the 100-mile limit.

If a properly served witness still refuses to appear or produce documents, the requesting party’s recourse is the federal district court for the district where the arbitrators are sitting, which under Section 7 can compel attendance or hold the witness in contempt.³ The petition attaches the signed subpoena and the proof of service and asks the judge to order compliance. Enforcement actions take time and money, so many witnesses who initially resist comply once they see a federal petition coming. Clean paperwork on the front end is what makes the enforcement path work if you need it.

1
American Arbitration Association. Discovery Best Practices for Construction Arbitration
2
American Arbitration Association. Commercial Arbitration Rules and Mediation Procedures
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 9 USC 7 – Witnesses Before Arbitrators
4
Global Dispute Resolution Insights. U.S. Circuit Courts Split Over Issues Concerning the Ability To Obtain Evidence From Non-Parties In International Arbitration
5
Cornell Law School. Rule 45 – Subpoena
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1821 – Per Diem and Mileage Generally
7
General Services Administration. Privately Owned Vehicle Mileage Reimbursement Rates
8
Miller Canfield. A Non-Party to An Arbitration Can Be Compelled to Give Testimony and Produce Documents