Rule 30.Depositions upon Oral Examinations

Subdivision (a) lets any party depose any person, including another party, after the action commences. A plaintiff generally needs leave of court to depose someone before thirty days after service of the summons and complaint on any defendant, unless a defendant has already served a deposition notice or otherwise sought discovery, or unless the plaintiff gives the special urgent notice described in subdivision (b)(2). A subpoena compels a witness’s attendance under § 15-6-45. Deposing an imprisoned person requires leave of court on terms the court sets, and deposing someone already deposed in the case requires either the deponent’s and parties’ consent or leave of court.

Subdivision (b) sets what the notice must contain — the time, place, and identity of the person to be examined — and lets a plaintiff skip the thirty-day wait by certifying, with supporting facts, that the deponent is about to leave the state or country or go to sea. It requires the notice to state the recording method, allocates recording costs to the party taking the deposition, and lets any party arrange an additional recording method at their own expense with notice. A notice to a party deponent may bundle a document-production request under § 15-6-34. Most notably, subdivision (b)(6) lets a party name a corporation, partnership, association, or governmental agency as the deponent and describe with reasonable particularity the matters for examination; the organization must then designate one or more officers, directors, managing agents, or other consenting persons to testify on its behalf about matters known or reasonably available to it, and a subpoena to a nonparty organization must advise it of this duty — the organizational-deponent, or 30(b)(6) deposition, mechanism. Parties may also stipulate, or the court may order, that a deposition be taken by telephone or other remote means.

Subdivision (c) has the officer swear the witness and record the testimony, with examination and cross-examination proceeding as they would at trial; objections are noted but the testimony is taken subject to them, and parties may instead serve written questions for the officer to propound. Subdivision (d) requires objections to be concise and non-argumentative, limits instructions not to answer to preserving a privilege, enforcing a court-ordered limit, or presenting a motion to terminate or limit the deposition, caps a deposition at one day of seven hours absent a stipulation or court order, requires the court to allow more time when fairness calls for it, authorizes sanctions for conduct that frustrates a fair examination, and lets the court terminate or limit a deposition being conducted in bad faith or to annoy, embarrass, or oppress a party or deponent.

Subdivision (e) has the transcribed deposition submitted to the witness for review unless waived, with any changes noted along with the witness’s reasons, and the witness signs it — or, if the witness does not sign within fifteen days, the officer signs and notes the reason, after which the deposition may still be used unless a motion to suppress persuades the court to reject it in whole or in part. Subdivision (f) has the officer certify and transmit the deposition and any produced exhibits, with options for substituting or returning original documents, and furnish copies on payment of reasonable charges, and the party who took the deposition must give prompt notice of its filing. Subdivision (g) lets the court shift the reasonable expenses of attending, including attorney’s fees, to a party who notices a deposition and then fails to attend, or who fails to subpoena a witness whose absence then wastes another party’s time.