Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30 sets out how parties in a federal lawsuit take sworn, out-of-court testimony from witnesses and opposing parties. Each side gets ten depositions, and no single deposition may run longer than one day of seven hours unless the parties agree otherwise or the court orders more. The rule covers the whole process, from the written notice through the certified transcript, including who may ask questions, how objections work, and what happens when someone refuses to appear or answer.
When You Can Start Taking Depositions
No deposition may go forward until after the parties have held their initial planning conference under Rule 26(f). That conference is where both sides discuss their claims, exchange initial disclosures, and propose a discovery plan. Until it happens, discovery is off-limits.
One narrow exception exists. If a witness is expected to leave the country and become unavailable, a party may notice the deposition before the Rule 26(f) conference, but the notice must include a certification with the facts supporting that expectation. Leave of court is required in a few other situations: to depose someone who has already been deposed in the case, to exceed the ten-deposition cap, or to depose a person confined in prison.
What the Notice Must Say
The party scheduling the deposition sends a written notice to every other party. The notice states the time and place and, if known, the deponent’s name and address. When the name is unknown, the notice must describe the person specifically enough that everyone can identify who is being deposed.
The notice also identifies how the testimony will be recorded: audio, audiovisual, or stenographic. Any other party may arrange, at its own expense, for additional recording methods.
If the deposing party plans to serve a subpoena requiring the deponent to bring documents, those materials must be listed in the notice or an attachment. That gives the other parties a chance to review the requests and object before the deposition.
Rule 30 requires “reasonable” notice without defining a specific number of days. Local court rules sometimes impose minimum timeframes. As a practical matter, at least two weeks gives the other side room to prepare, though shorter notice can work when circumstances demand it.
How Many Depositions, and How Long Each Can Run
Each side gets ten depositions total, counted across oral depositions under Rule 30 and written-question depositions under Rule 31. Plaintiffs share one pool of ten, defendants share another, and third-party defendants share a third. The parties can agree in writing to take more, or a party can ask the court for leave.
Each deposition is capped at one day of seven hours. The clock counts actual examination time; breaks, lunch, and off-the-record discussions do not eat into the limit. The court must extend the time when needed to fairly examine the deponent or when someone’s behavior has delayed or obstructed the questioning.
Getting a Witness to Appear
A party to the lawsuit can be compelled to appear by proper notice alone. Non-parties require a subpoena issued under Rule 45. The subpoena must state the method for recording testimony and be served by someone at least 18 years old who is not a party to the case.
At the time of service, the person serving the subpoena must tender the witness fees set by federal statute: $40 per day for attendance plus mileage at the rate the General Services Administration prescribes for federal employees, which is 72.5 cents per mile for 2026.
A subpoena can only compel a non-party to travel within certain limits. The deponent can be required to appear at a location within 100 miles of where they live, work, or regularly conduct business in person. A party or a party’s officer can also be compelled to appear anywhere within their home state, as long as compliance would not cause substantial expense.
If the deposing party wants the non-party to bring documents, the subpoena must specifically list the materials requested.
Deposing a Company or Agency
When the information you need is held by a company, government agency, or other organization rather than a specific person, Rule 30(b)(6) provides the mechanism. The deposition notice names the organization and describes the topics for examination. The organization then designates one or more people to testify on its behalf about those topics.
The designated witnesses are not limited to their own personal knowledge. The organization must prepare them to testify about everything the entity knows or can reasonably gather on the listed topics. The testimony binds the organization: if the witness says the company did something a certain way, the company owns that answer at trial. An adverse party can use a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition for any purpose.
Before or promptly after serving the notice, the deposing party and the organization must confer in good faith about the matters for examination. This meet-and-confer requirement, added to Rule 30(b)(6) in December 2020, gives both sides a chance to clarify scope, narrow overly broad topics, and make sure the organization designates the right people. When the deposition is directed at a non-party organization through a subpoena, the subpoena itself must advise the organization of this duty to confer.
An organization’s deposition counts as a single deposition against the ten-deposition limit, regardless of how many witnesses the organization designates. If the organization fails to adequately prepare its designee, the court can impose sanctions ranging from monetary penalties to prohibiting the organization from presenting certain evidence at trial.
Remote Depositions
The parties may agree, or the court may order on motion, that a deposition be taken by telephone or other remote means such as videoconference. A remote deposition is considered to take place wherever the deponent is physically located when answering questions. That location matters for determining which court has authority to resolve disputes that arise during the session.
Conducting the Examination
The deposition is conducted before an officer qualified under Rule 28, typically a certified court reporter or videographer. The officer opens on the record with the date, time, place, deponent’s name, and identification of everyone present, then administers an oath or affirmation.
Questioning follows the trial format: the deposing attorney examines, and other parties’ attorneys may cross-examine. Attorneys are expected to behave as they would in front of a judge.
Objections and Instructions Not to Answer
Objections must be stated briefly and without argument or coaching. A long, speaking objection that signals the witness how to answer is exactly what the rule prohibits. The objection is noted on the record, and the witness still answers. A judge rules on the objection later if the testimony is offered at trial or in a motion.
An attorney may instruct the deponent not to answer only in three situations: to protect a privilege such as attorney-client communications, to enforce a limitation the court has already ordered on the scope of discovery, or to allow time to file a motion to terminate or limit the deposition. Outside those three situations, telling the witness not to answer is improper and can draw sanctions.
Motions to Terminate or Limit a Deposition
If the examination is being conducted in bad faith or in a way that unreasonably harasses the deponent, the deponent or any party can ask the court to shut it down or impose limits. The deponent can suspend the deposition long enough to bring the motion. The court can end the deposition entirely, restrict its scope, or impose conditions on how it continues, and it can order the offending party to pay the reasonable expenses and attorney’s fees caused by the misconduct.
The rule cuts both ways. When an attorney representing the deponent obstructs the examination through coaching, speaking objections, or repeated improper instructions not to answer, the court can sanction that attorney as well.
Reviewing and Signing the Transcript
The deponent or any party can request, before the deposition ends, that the deponent be allowed to review the transcript. Once the transcript or recording is available, the deponent has 30 days to review it and submit any changes in form or substance. Changes must be accompanied by a signed statement explaining what was altered and why. These are not limited to fixing typos; a deponent can change a substantive answer, though a dramatic change will likely be used against them at trial.
If the deponent does not review or sign within the 30-day window, the officer certifies that review was requested but waived. Signed or not, the deposition can still be used as fully as if it had been signed.
The officer certifies in writing that the witness was properly sworn and that the record accurately captures the testimony. The officer then seals the deposition, labels it with the case caption and the witness’s name, and sends it to the attorney who arranged for the transcript. That attorney must store the transcript under conditions that protect it from loss, tampering, or deterioration. Any party or the deponent can get a copy by paying the officer’s reasonable charges.
Using Deposition Testimony at Trial
Rule 32 lays out when deposition testimony is admissible.
Any party can use a deposition to contradict or challenge a witness who testifies differently at trial than they did under oath during the deposition. This is the most common use and applies regardless of who took the deposition.
The deposition of an opposing party, or of someone who was an officer, director, or managing agent of an opposing party at the time of the deposition, can be used for any purpose. The same is true for a Rule 30(b)(6) designee. That testimony can be offered as direct evidence, not just to undermine credibility.
When a witness is unavailable, any party can use the deposition as a full substitute for live testimony. Rule 32 recognizes several grounds:
- The witness has died since the deposition.
- The witness is more than 100 miles from the courthouse or outside the United States, unless the offering party arranged the absence.
- Age, illness, infirmity, or imprisonment prevents the witness from attending or testifying.
- The party offering the deposition could not compel the witness’s attendance.
- The court finds, on motion, that exceptional circumstances make it in the interests of justice to allow the deposition over insisting on live testimony.
If one party reads only part of a deposition into the record, the opposing party can require them to introduce any other portions that fairness demands be considered alongside the selected excerpt.
Consequences for Failing to Appear
When a party notices a deposition and then fails to show up, or fails to serve a subpoena on a non-party witness who consequently does not appear, the other parties who did show up can recover their reasonable expenses for attending, including attorney’s fees.
The consequences are steeper when a party or its officer, director, or managing agent fails to appear for a properly noticed deposition. Under Rule 37(d), the court can impose a range of sanctions, including treating certain facts as established, prohibiting the non-appearing party from supporting or opposing certain claims, striking pleadings, or entering a default judgment in extreme cases. The court must also require the party or its attorney to pay the reasonable expenses caused by the failure, unless the failure was substantially justified or an award would be unjust. Simply objecting to the discovery is not a valid excuse for skipping the deposition if no protective order motion was pending at the time.
Who Pays
The party that notices the deposition generally pays for the court reporter’s attendance and the original transcript. Other parties who want their own copy pay separately. Court reporter appearance fees and per-page transcript charges vary significantly by region and provider, so getting quotes in advance is standard practice.
Non-party witnesses served with a subpoena are entitled to the $40-per-day attendance fee and mileage reimbursement at 72.5 cents per mile for 2026. When the non-party must travel far enough to require an overnight stay, they are also entitled to a subsistence allowance pegged to the federal per diem rates for that area.
Because the party taking the deposition bears the up-front cost, deciding which depositions are truly necessary is as much a budgeting question as a strategic one. Courts can shift costs in certain circumstances, and the prevailing party in the lawsuit may recover deposition expenses as part of taxable costs under 28 U.S.C. ยง 1920, though the amounts allowed are often more modest than what was actually spent.