§30.4 Comparison with Federal Rule

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§30.4COMPARISON WITH FEDERAL RULE

As the result of amendments to both CR 30 and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the state and federal rules for oral depositions now differ substantially. However, CR 29 and Fed. R. Civ. P. 29 both empower the parties to modify the requirements for depositions by written stipulation. The following discussion addresses the principal differences in the state and federal rules regarding depositions.

(1)When parties may take depositions

Under CR 30(a), any party may take depositions "[a]fter the summons and a copy of the complaint are served, or the complaint is filed, whichever shall first occur," although the rule imposes conditions on a plaintiff seeking a deposition less than 30 days after service of the summons and complaint. Although the former Fed. R. Civ. P. 30 provided that parties could take depositions "[a]fter commencement of the action," amendments to the federal rule effective December 1993 omitted this language.

Additional amendments to the federal rule effective December 1993 imposed limitations on when parties may take a deposition absent leave of court or written stipulation of the parties. These limitations are if a proposed deposition would result in more than 10 depositions being taken by one side; if the person to be examined already has been deposed in the case; or if a party seeks to take a deposition before the parties' "discovery conference" under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f), unless the person to be examined is expected to leave the United States and will be unavailable. Both the federal rule and the Washington rule also require leave of court if the person to be examined is confined in prison.

(2)Limitation on number of depositions

Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(a)(2)(A), a party may not take more than 10 depositions without leave of court or the written stipulation of the parties. The advisory committee notes state that a deposition under Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6) should be treated as a single deposition even though more than one person may be designated to testify. FED. R. CIV. P. 30, Notes of Advisory Committee on Rules—1993 Amendment, Subdivision (a).

In 2003-04, the WSBA Court Rules and Procedures Committee considered whether to recommend adoption of limitations on depositions. The committee did not recommend changes to CR 30 to limit the number or time of depositions. However, in September 2005, King County adopted discovery limits, including limitations on the number of depositions (10) and their length (seven hours for most depositions, except that one deposition may take two days of...