Since we have referred to the “decedent,” you know how this turned out. The appellee sued the plastic surgeon and her practice. He served the practice with a notice of a corporate designee deposition under OCGA § 9-11-30(b)(6), the Georgia analog to Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6). The practice designated its founder and co-owner.

Some lawyers began routinely filing a motion to authorize video depositions at the beginning of a case so that they would not be caught short later. In 1994-95, the State Bar Tort & Insurance Practice Section of which I was then chair, proposed an amendment to OCGA § 9-11-30 to authorize video recording of depositions upon notice, eliminating the need for an order or stipulation. A lobbyist for the insurance industry blocked that in the 1995 session of the General Assembly out of concern that physicians who were defendants in malpractice cases would not come across well in video depositions.