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(a) Notice; Method of Taking; Production of Documents; Deposition of Organization.

(1) Notice. A party desiring to take the deposition of any person upon oral examination shall give reasonable notice in writing to every other party to the action. The notice shall state the time and place for taking the deposition and the name and address of each person to be examined, if known, and, if the name is not known, a general description sufficient to identify the person or the particular class or group to which the person belongs. If a subpoena duces tecum is to be served on the person to be examined, the designation of the materials to be produced as set forth in the subpoena shall be attached to or included in the notice.

(2) Method of Taking. Unless otherwise agreed by the parties or ordered by the court, depositions shall be taken by stenographic means. The notice shall state the method by which the testimony shall be recorded.

(4) Depositions by Telephone or Other Remote Electronic Means. The parties may stipulate in writing or the court may order that a deposition be taken by telephone or other remote electronic means.

(a) Use of Depositions. At the trial or upon the hearing of a motion or an interlocutory proceeding, any part or all of a deposition, so far as admissible under the rules of evidence applied as though the witness were then present and testifying, may be used against any party who was present or represented at the taking of the deposition or who had reasonable notice thereof, in accordance with any of the following provisions:

(1) Impeachment. Any deposition may be used by any party for the purpose of contradicting or impeaching the testimony of the deponent as a witness.

(2) Party or Agent. The deposition of a party or of any one who at the time of taking the deposition was an officer, director, or managing agent of a public or private corporation, partnership, or association which is a party may be used by an adverse party for any purpose.

(3) Unavailable Witness. The deposition of a witness, whether or not a party, may be used by any party for any purpose if the court finds:

(i) that the witness is dead; or

(ii) that the witness is out of the county, unless it appears that the absence of the witness was procured by the party offering the deposition; or

(iii) that the witness is unable to attend or testify because of age, sickness, infirmity, or imprisonment; or

(iv) that the party offering the deposition has been unable to procure the attendance of the witness by subpoena; or

(v) that the witness is a physician or surgeon, or that the witness is an expert witness, even though the witness is available.

(a) Submission to Deponent; Changes; Signing. When the testimony is fully transcribed, the deposition shall be submitted to the deponent for examination and shall be read to or by the deponent unless such examination and reading are waived by the deponent and by the parties. Any changes in form or substance which the deponent desires to make shall be entered upon the deposition by the officer with a statement of the reasons given by the deponent for making them. The deposition shall then be signed by the deponent, unless the parties by stipulation waive the signing or the deponent is ill or cannot be found or refuses to sign. If the deposition is not signed by the deponent within 28 days after its submission to the deponent, the officer shall sign it and state on the record the fact of the waiver or of the illness or absence of the deponent or the fact of the refusal to sign together with the reason, if any, given therefor; and the deposition may then be used as fully as though signed, unless on a motion to suppress under Rule 211(d) the court holds that the reasons given for the refusal to sign require rejection of the deposition in whole or in part.

(b) Certification by Officer; Exhibits. The officer shall certify on the deposition that the deponent was duly sworn by him or her and that the deposition is a true record of the testimony given by the deponent. The officer shall then securely seal the deposition in an envelope endorsed with the title of the action and marked "Deposition of (here insert the name of the deponent)" and shall promptly file it with the court in which the action is pending or send it by registered or certified mail to the clerk thereof for filing. Documents and things produced for inspection during the examination of the deponent shall, upon the request of a party, be marked for identification and annexed to and returned with the deposition, and may be inspected and copied by any party, except that (1) the person producing the materials may substitute copies to be marked for identification if all parties are afforded a fair opportunity to verify the copies by comparison with the originals, and (2) if the person producing the materials requests their return, the officer shall mark them, give each party an opportunity to inspect and copy them, and return them to the person producing them, and the materials may then be used in the same manner as if annexed to and returned with the deposition.

(a) Transcription and Filing. When a deposition is taken stenographically, it shall be transcribed at the request of any party. When a deposition is taken by audio-visual means, the person recording the deposition shall make an audio-visual recording of the deposition and, upon the request of any party, shall also prepare a transcript of the deposition. The transcript shall be certified by the officer before whom the deposition is taken and promptly filed with the court in which the action is pending. The original of a deposition may be filed by electronic transmission.

(b) Preservation and Retrieval of Audio-Visual Recordings. The original of the audio-visual recording of the deposition shall be preserved by the party at whose instance it was taken or, where a deposition is taken by order of court, by the party who made the motion pursuant to which the deposition was taken. The party responsible for preserving the original audio-visual recording of a deposition shall preserve it for a period of three years after the entry of the final order disposing of the action. Upon request, the party shall provide a copy of the recording at the expense of the requesting party.

(a) Direct Interrogatories. A party may direct written interrogatories to any other party. Interrogatories may relate to any matters specified in Rule 201(b) and the answers may be used to the same extent as provided in Rule 212(a) for the use of depositions. An interrogatory which requires a party to give an opinion or contention that relates to fact or the application of law to fact is not objectionable.

(b) Continuing Duty to Disclose. The duty to seasonably supplement or amend discovery responses, including answers to interrogatories, is established by Rule 213(i).

This is a way for you to find out more facts about the case from the other party or witnesses. You cannot use testimony from a discovery deposition at trial, except for limited purposes. These limited purposes are:

• Impeachment of a witness,
• Admission of a party opponent,
• Exception to the hearsay rule, 
• Any purpose for which an affidavit may be used, or
• With reasonable notice to the other side and with court permission, if the deponent is unable to testify because of infirmity or they have died.

Advantages of a discovery deposition:

• Less rules about what questions you can ask, and
• Any party can question the deponent.

However, the deposition cannot last longer than 3 hours, excluding breaks.

This is a way to get statements you can later use at a trial. The advantages of an evidence deposition are:

• You may be able to use the testimony at trial if the deponent is unavailable, and
• The length of the deposition is unlimited. 

During an evidence deposition, examination and cross-examination must follow trial rules. For example, you cannot ask leading questions during direct. Cross-examination cannot go beyond the scope of direct. If the questioning breaks these rules, an attorney can object, but the deponent must still answer the question. The judges decides the objection later. 

A party can ask to end the deposition or limit its scope if the examination is:

• Being done in bad faith,
• Unreasonably annoying,
• Unreasonably harmful, or
• Unreasonably oppressing the deponent.