If the deponent named is not a natural person, the deposition notice shall describe with reasonable particularity the matters on which examination is requested. In that event, the deponent shall designate and produce at the deposition those of its officers, directors, managing agents, employees, or agents who are most qualified to testify on its behalf as to those matters to the extent of any information known or reasonably available to the deponent.
§ 2025.230.Contents of notice; deponent not a natural person
Title 4. Civil Discovery Act · Chapter 9. Oral Deposition Inside California · Article 2. Deposition Notice · Enacted 2004 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 29, 2026
In one sentenceSection 2025.230 requires a deposition notice aimed at an organization to describe the examination topics with reasonable particularity, so the organization can designate and produce the officers, directors, managing agents, employees, or agents most qualified to testify on those matters.
Full Text of § 2025.230
Plain-English Summary
When the party being deposed is an organization rather than a person, someone still has to sit in the chair and answer questions, and this section explains how that person gets chosen. The notice has to describe, with reasonable particularity, the matters the noticing party wants to examine, giving the organization enough detail to figure out who inside it knows the answers.
Once that description is in hand, the organization designates and produces whichever officers, directors, managing agents, employees, or agents are most qualified to testify on its behalf, to the extent the organization has or can reasonably obtain that knowledge. This is the source of the person-most-qualified deposition that recurs throughout California practice, and how well the topic description in the notice is written drives how well the organization can match the right witness to the right subject.
Frequently Asked Questions
How must a notice describe topics when the deponent is an organization?
With reasonable particularity, so the organization can identify who within it can testify on those matters.
Who must the organization produce to testify?
Whichever officers, directors, managing agents, employees, or agents are most qualified to testify on its behalf as to the noticed matters.
Is the organization's obligation limited to what it already knows?
Yes, only to the extent of information known or reasonably available to the organization.
Amendment History
(Added by Stats.2004, c. 182 (A.B.3081), § 23, operative July 1, 2005.)
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the West's Annotated California Codes / Thomson Reuters. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 29, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: person most qualified deposition californiapmk deposition notice topics