Rule 30.02.Notice of examination -- General requirements -- Special notice -- Nonstenographic recording -- Production of documents and things -- Deposition of organization.

A party who wants to depose someone must give every other party reasonable notice in writing. The notice has to state the time and place of the deposition and identify the person to be examined, by name if known or by a description specific enough to identify the person or the group they belong to. If the deposing party plans to serve a subpoena duces tecum on the witness, the list of materials the witness must bring has to be attached to or included in the notice.

Rule 30.02 also covers a plaintiff who needs to depose a witness before the usual 30-day waiting period has run. The plaintiff can do this through special notice stating that the witness is about to leave the state and will be unavailable otherwise, along with the supporting facts. The plaintiff's attorney signs that notice, and the signature certifies under Rule 11 that the statement is true to the attorney's knowledge. A party who was served with special notice but could not, despite diligent effort, get a lawyer in time cannot have that deposition used against them. The court can also shorten or enlarge the time for taking a deposition for good cause.

The rule sets detailed conditions for video-recorded depositions, which are taxed as costs. The equipment operator must be qualified, must identify the people present (either by focusing the camera on each person or by reading an introductory statement), and must file a certificate identifying the recording. The camera stays fixed on the witness and cannot zoom in except to show exhibits or demonstrative evidence the jury needs to see clearly. A stenographic transcript is not required in addition to the recording, though a party who wants one can get it at that party's own expense. The attorney taking the deposition keeps the recording, and it must be available for the court and all counsel to view or compare against any transcript; disagreements between the recording and a transcript are worked out by agreement of counsel or, failing that, by the court. Objections are reserved and are not stated on the recording except objections to the form of a question; all objections must be raised at least 10 days before trial, and an edited version of the recording is what gets shown at trial. Counsel can object to admissibility if the finished recording has technical errors that unfairly favor the witness's testimony or if its technical quality is poor enough to unfairly prejudice a side.

A notice to a party can come with a request under Rule 34 to produce documents and tangible things at the deposition, following the procedure in Rule 34.02. And a party can name an organization -- a corporation, partnership, association, or government agency -- as the deponent, describing with reasonable particularity the topics for examination. The organization then designates one or more officers, directors, managing agents, or other consenting persons to testify on its behalf on those topics, and a subpoena to a nonparty organization must tell it about this duty to designate someone. The people designated testify to what is known or reasonably available to the organization. None of this stops a party from deposing an organization through some other procedure the rules allow.