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Rule 200. Depositions Upon Oral Examination (1984)

TEXT

1. When Depositions May Be Taken. After commencement of the action, any party may take the testimony of any person, including a party, by deposition upon oral examination.

Leave of court, granted with or without notice, must be obtained only if a party seeks to take a deposition prior to the appearance day of any defendant.

2. Notice of Examination: General Requirements; Notice of Deposition of Organization

a. Reasonable notice must be served in writing by the party, or his attorney, proposing to take a deposition upon oral examination, to every other party or his attorney of record. The notice shall state the name of the deponent, the time and place of the taking of his deposition, and if the production of documents or tangible things in accordance with Rule 201 is desired, a designation of the items to be produced by the deponent either by individual item or by category and which describes each item and category with reasonable particularity.

b. A party may in his notice name as the deponent a public or private corporation or a partnership or association or governmental agency and describe with reasonable particularity the matters on which examination is requested.

Amended by order of Dec. 5, 1983, eff. April 1, 1984: The rule is rewritten. The first sentence of paragraph one is taken from former rule 186a and Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(a). The second sentence is based upon former Rule 186b and Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(a) and (b)(2). Paragraph two has been redrafted to provide that all parties are entitled to notice of a deposition and to conform it to the provisions of Rule 201 dealing with the subpoena duces tecum and designation of a witness by corporate deponents. The new language in section 2b is a verbatim adoption of the first sentence of Federal Rule 30(b)(6).