§ 2026.010.Depositions in another state of the United States,

A California lawsuit doesn't stop a party from needing testimony from someone who lives or works out of state. This section lets any party take an oral deposition in another state, territory, or insular possession of the United States, and folds that deposition into the same Chapter 9 procedures used for depositions taken inside California, except where this section itself changes something. Compulsion works differently depending on who the deponent is. If the deponent is a party, or an officer, director, managing agent, or employee of a party, serving the deposition notice is enough by itself to require attendance, testimony, and production of documents or electronically stored information, so long as the notice picks a location within 75 miles of that deponent's residence or business office. If the deponent has no such tie to a party, the noticing party instead has to use whatever compulsion process the other state or territory provides, since California's own notice has no binding force there.

The section also covers who runs the deposition and how a party gets official backing for it. The deposition can proceed under a person authorized to administer oaths where the deposition happens, or under a person the court appoints for that purpose, and either way that appointment carries the authority to swear the witness and take testimony. On request, and without needing a noticed motion or court order, the clerk issues a commission authorizing the deposition and asking that the other jurisdiction's own process compel attendance and production there. If that other jurisdiction insists on a court order before it will act, the party can get one through an ex parte application rather than a full motion.