Compelling Witnesses for Depositions and to Bring Documents With Them

This section governs deposition notices when the witness is also being requested to appear and produce documents. Always request that the other party bring documents to a deposition. Not only are documents almost always a critical part of evidence that you need to learn about or nail down in family law litigation, lawyers know that if that party fails to fully comply with the production it forms the basis to suspend the deposition "in progress" and resume another day. This may give you "two bites of the apple" which otherwise would not be available (possibly spanning months in between), since you can generally depose someone only once assuming the deposition is completed.

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CALIFORNIA CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE

ORAL DEPOSITION INSIDE CALIFORNIA

Deposition Notice

C.C.P. Section 2025.220

(a) A party desiring to take the oral deposition of any person shall give notice in writing. The deposition notice shall state all of the following:

(1) The address where the deposition will be taken.

(2) The date of the deposition, selected under Section 2025.270, and the time it will commence.

(3) The name of each deponent, and the address and telephone number, if known, of any deponent who is not a party to the action. If the name of the deponent is not known, the deposition notice shall set forth instead a general description sufficient to identify the person or particular class to which the person belongs.

(4) The specification with reasonable particularity of any materials or category of materials to be produced by the deponent.

(5) Any intention by the party noticing the deposition to record the testimony by audio or video technology, in addition to recording the testimony by the stenographic method as required by Section 2025.330 and any intention to record the testimony by stenographic method through the instant visual display of the testimony. If the deposition will be conducted using instant visual display, a copy of the deposition notice shall also be given to the deposition officer. Any offer to provide the instant visual display of the testimony or to provide rough draft transcripts to any party which is accepted prior to, or offered at, the deposition shall also be made by the deposition officer at the deposition to all parties in attendance. Any party or attorney requesting the provision of the instant visual display of the testimony, or rough draft transcripts, shall pay the reasonable cost of those services, which may be no greater than the costs charged to any other party or attorney.

(6) Any intention to reserve the right to use at trial a video recording of the deposition testimony of a treating or consulting physician or of any expert witness under subdivision (d) of Section 2025.620. In this event, the operator of the video camera shall be a person who is authorized to administer an oath, and shall not be financially interested in the action or be a relative or employee of any attorney of any of the parties.

(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), where under Article 4 (commencing with Section 2020.410) only the production by a nonparty of business records for copying is desired, a copy of the deposition subpoena shall serve as the notice of deposition.