Ohio Civ.R. 30
Each party at the deposition may examine the deponent without regard to which party served notice or called the deposition. In all other respects the examination and cross-examination of a deponent may proceed as they would at trial under the Ohio Rules of Evidence, except Evid.R. 103 and Evid.R. 615. After putting the deponent under oath or affirmation, the officer shall record the testimony by the method designated under Civ.R. 30(B)(3). The testimony shall be recorded by the officer personally or by a person acting in the presence and under the direction of the officer.
An objection made at the time of the examination whether to evidence, a party's conduct, to the officer's qualifications, to the manner of taking the deposition, or to any other aspect of the deposition shall be noted on the record, but the examination still proceeds, the testimony taken subject to any objection. An objection shall be stated concisely in a nonargumentative and nonsuggestive manner. A person may instruct a deponent not to answer only when necessary to preserve a privilege, to enforce a limitation ordered by a court, or to present a motion under Civ.R. 30(D).
Instead of participating in the oral examination, a party may serve written questions in a sealed envelope on the party noticing the deposition, who must deliver them to the officer. The officer must ask the deponent those questions and record the answers verbatim.
Ohio. Civ.R. 30
Staff Note (July 1, 1997 Amendment)
Rule 30(F) Certification and filing by officer; exhibits; copies; notice of filing
The 1997 amendment added the second sentence to division (F)(1). The amendment responds to a concern frequently expressed by individuals charged with taking or keeping notes of depositions, namely, what duty there is (if at all) to retain such notes. Present practice in Ohio on this matter appears to vary widely, and space and expense concerns come into play if such notes are kept in perpetuity. The amendment permits the officer to discard notes of a deposition, five years after it has taken place (whether or not the deposition has been transcribed), as long as the officer retains an archival quality copy of the notes. Archival quality would include notes maintained in magnetic, optical, or other equivalent medium. The original notes must be retained for at least five years, to provide a backup source should the archivalquality copy in any particular case not produce a usable deposition. It is anticipated that any such instances should be rare; however, in the unlikely event that such problems arise, most requests to transcribe depositions would take place within about five years of the original taking of the deposition. By that point, presumably, in most cases the litigation that gave rise to the deposition will have come to an end, as would the need for a transcribed copy of the deposition. For those few instances when a transcribed deposition is needed more than five years later, under the amendment the original notes or an archival-quality copy thereof will still be available.
Prior to the 1997 amendment, service under this rule was permitted only by certified mail. It appears that service by express mail, i.e. as that sort of mail is delivered by the United States Postal Service, can always be obtained return receipt requested, and thus could accomplish the purpose of notification equally well as certified mail. Therefore, the amendment to division (F)(1) provides for this additional option for service.
Other amendments to this rule are nonsubstantive grammatical or stylistic changes.
Staff Note (July 1, 2006 Amendment)
The 2006 amendments contain two changes pertaining to the time period for reviewing and signing depositions and the retention of deposition notes by the court reporter who transcribed the deposition.
Rule 30(E) Submission to witness; changes; signing
Civ.R. 30(E) is amended to allow a witness thirty days to review and sign a deposition. The former rule allowed the witness only seven days to review and sign a deposition, and the Committee recognized that a careful review of a deposition in that period of time was sometimes practically or logistically difficult. When a deposition is taken close to trial, however, a quick turn-around may be necessary. Consequently, division (E) is amended to expand to thirty days the period in which a witness has to review and sign a deposition. Exceptions are provided for cases where the deposition is taken within thirty days of trial or hearing, in which case the seven-day rule still applies, or less than seven days of trial or hearing, in which case the trial judge may establish a different deadline. This amendment brings the Ohio rule closer to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which give a witness thirty days to review and sign a deposition.
Rule 30(F) Certification and filing by officer; exhibits; copies; notice of filing
The 2006 amendment added division (F)(4). The amendment responds to a concern expressed by individuals charged with taking or keeping notes of depositions in light of changes in technology and the fact that most present-day court reporting machines no longer use paper but record and retain deposition testimony via electronic means. The amendment clarifies that "archival-quality copy" means any format of a permanent or enduring nature that will allow an officer to transcribe the deposition. In light of this definition, division (F)(1)(a) was revised to delete language that required the retention of paper notes of deposition testimony for a minimum of five years following the deposition.
Staff Note (July 1, 2015 Amendment)
Rule 30(B)(3)
This amendment is modeled on Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(3)(B) and permits a party other than the one noticing the deposition, at its own expense, after notice to the deponent and parties, to arrange for an additional method of recording the testimony, unless the court orders otherwise.
Rule 30(B)(6)
This amendment is modeled on Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(4) and allows the parties to stipulate that a deposition may be taken by other remote means, such as over the Internet or using a satellite, rather than limiting the means of taking to the telephone.
Staff Note (July 1, 2017 Amendment)
Civ.R. 30(C) Examination and cross-examination; objections
The 2017 amendments adopt the 2007 stylistic changes to Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(c), including a nonsubstantive substitution of "deponent" for "witness." Deponents include both parties and non-parties. See Civ.R. 30(A).
The amendments provide that the Rules of Evidence shall apply at a deposition, except Evid.R. 103 and Evid.R. 615. The Federal Rules first included this provision in 1993. With respect to the exception of Evid.R. 615, the Notes of the Federal Advisory Committee included the following comments which are approved and re-stated in this Staff Note:
"[T]he revision addresses a recurring problem as to whether other potential deponents can attend a deposition. Courts have disagreed, some holding that witnesses should be excluded through invocation of Rule 615 of the evidence rules, and others holding that witnesses may attend unless excluded by an order under [Rule 26(c)] . The revision provides that other witnesses are not automatically excluded from a deposition simply by the request of a party. Exclusion, however, can be ordered under [Rule 26(c)] when appropriate; and, if exclusion is ordered, consideration should be given as to whether the excluded witnesses likewise should be precluded from reading, or being otherwise informed about, the testimony given in the earlier depositions. The revision addresses only the matter of attendance by potential deponents, and does not attempt to resolve issues concerning attendance by others, such as members of the public or press.
In adopting the 2007 federal stylistic changes, the amendments include provisions of the federal rule addressing the manner of making objections and the circumstances under which an instruction not to answer a question may be given. These additional provisions are consistent with the guidelines entitled: Professionalism Dos and Don'ts: Depositions, first published by the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Professionalism in 2012.
The amendments also add an introductory sentence to Civ.R. 30(C), which specifies that each party at the deposition may examine the deponent without regard to which party served notice or called the deposition. Although this introductory sentence is not found in the current federal rule, the provision is consistent with federal practice. See, Powell v. Time Warner Cable, Inc., Case No. 2:09-CV-00600 (S.D.Ohio Nov. 2, 2010) (order partially granting motion to compel); Smith v. Logansport Community School, 139 F.R.D. 637, 642 (N.D.Ind 1991).
Staff Note (July 1, 2023 Amendment)
Division (B)(5) is amended to reflect the 2020 update to Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(6).
Division (B)(6) is amended to allow depositions where one or more participants are in "remote presence" as defined in new Civ.R. 1.1(E). It clarifies that for witnesses in Ohio being deposed for an Ohio case the deposition is considered taken in the jurisdiction in which the case is pending, so that any motion for a protective order, or otherwise arising from the deposition is addressed by the Ohio court hearing the underlying case. If an out-of-state court has been used to subpoena an out-of-state witness, or an Ohio witness is subpoenaed in Ohio for an out-of-state case, the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act (R.C. 2319.09) must be consulted.