Rule 30.02 - Notice of examination: general requirements; special notice; nonstenographic recording; production of documents and things; deposition of organization(1) A party desiring to take the deposition of any person upon oral examination shall give reasonable notice in writing to every other party to the action. The notice shall state the time and place for taking the deposition and the name and address of each person to be examined, if known, and, if the name is not known, a general description sufficient to identify him or the particular class or group to which he belongs. If a subpoena duces tecum is to be served on the person to be examined, the designation of the materials to be produced as set forth in the subpoena shall be attached to or included in the notice.(2)(a) Leave of court is not required for the taking of a deposition by plaintiff if the notice (i) states that the person to be examined is about to go out of the state and will be unavailable for examination unless his deposition is taken before expiration of the 30-day period, and (ii) sets forth facts to support the statement. The plaintiff's attorney shall sign the notice, and his signature constitutes a certification by him that to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief the statement and supporting facts are true. The sanctions provided by Rule 11 are applicable to the certification.(b) If a party shows that when he was served with notice under subparagraph (a) of this paragraph (2) he was unable through the exercise of diligence to obtain counsel to represent him at the taking of the deposition, the deposition may not be used against him.(3) The court may for cause shown enlarge or shorten the time for taking the deposition.(4) Video recorded depositions may be taken in pending actions and shall be taxed as costs. Notice to take depositions shall be in accordance with the Rules of Civil Procedure. At the deposition the video recording equipment shall be operated by a person qualified to operate such recording equipment, who is to mark the recording with the style and number of the action and the name of the witness and to file a certificate which identifies the said recording. Video recorded depositions shall be taken under the following conditions:
(a) The party noticing the deposition shall provide the operator with a copy of this rule. At the beginning of the recording of the deposition, the operator of the video recording equipment will focus on each attorney, party and witness present at the taking of the disposition, and such person shall be identified; or the operator may read a statement introducing by name parties to the litigation and the attorneys present without focusing on each person, at the election of the noticing party.(b) The video recording equipment will remain stationary at all times during the deposition and will not "zoom" in or out on the witness excepting those times during the deposition when the witness is displaying, for the jury's viewing, exhibits or other pieces of demonstrative proof that can only be fairly and reasonably seen on the video recording by use of the equipment "zooming" in on said evidence. The purpose of this clause is so that the video recording equipment will not "zoom" in on a witness solely to give unfair or undue influence upon the words of the witness, and does not apply to the "zooming" in for other purposes described above.(c) A stenographic transcript, in addition to the video recording, will not be necessary. Any party desiring such a transcript may obtain it at that party's cost.(d) The video recording shall be kept in the possession of the attorney taking the deposition and will be available for the Court and any and all counsel to view, copy, or compare with a stenographic transcript, if any. If discrepancies appear between the stenographic transcript and the video recording, the discrepancies will be resolved by agreement of counsel or ruling of the Court if counsel cannot agree. The decision on the manner in which to handle the discrepancies, insofar as the video recording is concerned, will be included in the agreement of counsel or ruling of the Court.(e) All objections will be reserved and shall not be stated on the video recording except for objections relating to the form of the question. Objections to testimony on the video recording will be resolved by agreement of counsel or ruling of the Court if counsel cannot agree. All objections relating to said depositions must be made at least 10 days before trial. An edited version shall be presented at trial.(f) Admissibility of the video recording may be objected to by counsel if a review of the finished video recording reveals any technical errors giving undue influence to the testimony of the witness which would unfairly prejudice the side objecting, or if the general technical quality of the video recording is so poor that its being viewed by the jury would be unfairly prejudicial to the side so objecting.(5) The notice to a party deponent may be accompanied by a request made in compliance with Rule 34 for the production of documents and tangible things at the taking of the deposition. The procedure of Rule 34.02 shall apply to the request.(6) A party may in his notice and in a subpoena name as the deponent a public or private corporation or a partnership or association or governmental agency and describe with reasonable particularity the matters on which examination is requested. In that event, the organization so named shall designate one or more officers, directors, or managing agents, or other persons who consent to testify on its behalf, and may set forth, for each person designated, the matters on which he will testify. A subpoena shall advise a non-party organization of its duty to make such a designation. The persons so designated shall testify as to matters known or reasonably available to the organization. This paragraph (6) does not preclude taking a deposition by any other procedure authorized in these rules. Amended by Order 2006-09, eff. 1/1/2007; prior amendments eff. 10/1/1994 (Order 94-1), 1/1/1987, 1/1/1978, 10/1/1971, 7/1/1969; adopted eff. 7/1/1953