Subpoenaing a Witness: What It Costs and How It Works

A witness who won't show up voluntarily can be compelled to testify with a subpoena — but compelling them comes with a statutory cost most first-time filers don't expect: you generally have to pay the witness before they're legally required to appear.

1. In most states, you pay before the subpoena is even valid

California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey all require the witness fee and mileage to be tendered when the subpoena is served — not after the witness testifies. Skip this and the witness generally isn't obligated to show up, and in some states it's grounds to have the subpoena thrown out entirely. North Carolina is the outlier: the witness applies to the clerk for payment after appearing, so nothing has to change hands upfront.

2. The fee itself is small — and varies a lot

These are old statutes that haven't moved much: New Jersey pays a witness just $2 a day, Florida and Pennsylvania $5, North Carolina $5, New York $15, and California $35. None of these are typos — they're the real, current statutory rates, just genuinely modest ones.

3. Mileage gets added on top — and it's not always a per-mile rate

Most states pay round-trip mileage at a set rate per mile — North Carolina ties its rate to the same figure the state uses for its own employees' travel reimbursement, currently 72.5¢/mile, which moves independently of the underlying fee statute. New Jersey does it differently: a flat $2 for every 30 miles traveled, rather than a per-mile rate at all.

4. A local witness might not cost you mileage at all

New York and North Carolina both waive mileage entirely if the witness travels wholly within the same city (New York) or county (North Carolina) as the courthouse — which covers most witnesses in a typical small claims case, not just a rare edge case.

What it costs

Add up the daily fee and mileage for your state, your witness's distance from the courthouse, and however many days you expect them to testify, with the Witness Fee & Subpoena Cost Calculator.

Preparing witnesses is part of getting ready for your hearing — see How to File a Small Claims Case for the rest of what happens before and after trial.