Civil Subpoena Policy

AOL, its records, and its Custodian of Records are located in Loudoun County, Virginia, which is its principal place of business, and subject to the jurisdiction of Loudoun County Circuit Court. Since AOL's headquarters is in the State of New York, AOL also accepts service from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Supreme Court of New York. For applicable requirements governing the issuance of foreign state subpoenas or federal subpoenas in these jurisdictions, please consult: Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-411 , Va. Code Ann.§ 8.01-407.1 and Virginia Supreme Court Rule 4:9(c) ; NY CPLR 3102(e); and/or Rule 45 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure .

For all properly issued subpoenas, service should be made upon our registered agent:

Corporation Service Company
11 South 12th Street
Post Office Box 1463
Richmond, Virginia 23218

Upon receipt of a valid subpoena, it is AOL's policy to promptly notify the Member(s) whose information is sought. AOL will not produce the subpoenaed Member identity information until 10 days after receipt of the subpoena, so that the Member whose information is sought will have adequate opportunity to move to quash the subpoena in court.  AOL invoices for costs associated with subpoena compliance. We charge $125.00 per hour for research, $14.00 per Federal Express and 25 cents per copy.  AOL will invoice the subpoenaing party prior to production, and payment must be made prior to the production of the subpoenaed information.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act; 18 U.S.C. §2701 et seq. , prohibits an electronic communications service provider from producing the contents of electronic communications, even pursuant to subpoena or court order, except in limited circumstances.

AOL maintains no email on its computer servers that is not also directly accessible to a user of an email screen name. In other words, AOL does not maintain a separate archive of a member's emails beyond what is found in a member's AOL email folders. If a member cannot access any given email message, then it does not exist separately on AOL's servers.

Finally, it is AOL's policy to release information sufficient to identify an AOL member only where the party seeking the information has filed a legal action that implicates the AOL member in some legally cognizable impropriety or wrongdoing or can show that the information requested is material to the issues involved in the underlying case . Those persons seeking information must provide AOL with a copy of the complaint and any supporting documentation to indicate how the AOL e-mail address is related to the pending litigation.  AOL reserves the right to determine in its sole discretion the applicability of this policy to any particular request and, further, this policy does not create any enforceable legal rights, either for AOL members or for requesting parties.

To contact AOL Legal, please e-mail us at AOLLegal@corp.aol.com .