(a) Fair Notice. Absent agreement of the parties or Court order, each notice to take the
deposition of a party or other witness shall be served at least twenty-one (21) days prior to
the date set for examination.
(b) Production of Documents in Connection with Depositions. Consistent with the
requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 30 and 34, a party seeking production of documents of
another party or witness in connection with a deposition shall schedule the deposition to
allow for production of the documents at least seven (7) calendar days prior to the
deposition. Upon receipt of the documents, the party noticing the deposition shall
immediately inform counsel for all other noticed parties that the requested documents
have been produced and shall make the documents available for their inspection and
reproduction. If timely requested documents are not produced at least seven (7) days prior
to the deposition, the party noticing the deposition may either adjourn the deposition until
a minimum of seven (7) days after the documents are produced or, without waiving the
right to access to the documents, proceed with the deposition on the originally scheduled
date.
(c) Procedures for Video Depositions. A Court order is required before taking a deposition
by other than stenographic means (i.e., without the use of a stenographic record).
However, a prior order is not required to record a deposition both on video and
stenographically. In the latter circumstance, the following procedures apply:
(1) The deposition notice shall state that the deposition will be recorded both
stenographically and on video. At the deposition, the camera operator shall be
identified. An employee of the attorney who noticed the deposition may act as the
camera operator.
(2) The camera shall be directed at the witness at all times showing a head and
shoulders view, except that close-up views of exhibits are permitted where
requested by the questioning attorney.
(3) Prior to trial, counsel for the party seeking to use the video deposition shall
approach opposing counsel and attempt to resolve voluntarily all objections made
at the deposition.
(4) The party seeking to use the video deposition at trial shall submit unresolved
objections to the Court by way of a motion in limine. The motion may be made at
any time after the deposition, but shall be made no later than seven (7) days before
trial or any earlier deadline established by Court order. The objected-to portion(s)
of the transcript shall be annexed to the motion papers.
(5) In accordance with the Court’s ruling on objections, the party seeking to use the
video deposition shall notify opposing counsel of the transcript pages and line
numbers the party plans to delete from the video. The party seeking to use the
video shall then edit the video accordingly, and shall bear the expenses of editing.
If the Court overrules an objection made during the deposition, the objection need
not be deleted. If requested, the Court will give an instruction at the time the video
is shown regarding objections heard on the video.
(6) At least three (3) days before showing the video, the party seeking to use the video
deposition at trial shall deliver a copy of the edited video to opposing counsel.
Opposing counsel may then object only if the edited version does not comply with
the Court’s ruling and counsels’ agreement, or if the video’s quality is such that it
will be difficult for the jury to understand. Such objections, if any, must be made
in writing and served at least twenty-four (24) hours before the video is to be
shown.
(7) The party seeking to use the video deposition should attempt to utilize a storage
format compatible with the Court’s display equipment. A party utilizing an
incompatible format must provide the equipment necessary to display the video in
Court.
(8) See Loc. R. Civ. P. 54(c) for prerequisites to the receipt of video expenses as a
component of taxable costs.
