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Rule 205. Submission to Witness; Changes; Signing (1988)

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When the testimony is fully transcribed the deposition officer shall transmit or provide the original deposition transcript to the witness or if the witness is a party with an attorney of record, to the attorney of record, for examination and signature, by the witness before any officer authorized to administer an oath, unless such examination and signature are waived by the witness and by the parties. No erasures or obliterations of any kind are to be made to the original testimony as tran­scribed by the deposition officer. Any changes in form or substance which the witness desires to make shall be furnished to the deposition officer by the witness, together with a statement of the reasons given by the witness for making such changes. The changes and the statement of the reasons for the changes shall be attached to the deposition by the deposition officer. The deposition transcript and any changes shall then be subscribed by the witness under oath, before any officer authorized to administer an oath, unless the parties by stipulation waive the signing or the witness is ill or cannot be found or refuses to sign. If the witness does not sign and return the original deposition transcript within twenty days of its submission to him or his counsel of record, the deposition officer shall sign a true copy of the transcript and state on the record the fact of the waiver of examination and signature or of the illness or absence of the witness or the fact of the refusal to sign together with the reason, if any, given therefor. The copy of the deposition transcript may then be used as fully as though signed, unless on motion to suppress, made as provided in Rule 207, the Court determines that the reasons given for the refusal to sign require rejection of the deposition in whole or in part.

Amended by order of July 15, 1987, eff. Jan. 1, 1988. Comment. The amendments to this rule are to update the rule to conform to the usual practices used in finalizing the deposition.