§ 2035.020.Discovery methods available

This section answers a question Section 2035.010 leaves open: once a petitioner has permission to perpetuate testimony or preserve evidence, what tools can it use. The list is short and closed. Oral and written depositions come first, letting the petitioner capture a witness's sworn testimony on the record before the case exists to litigate over it. Inspections of documents, things, and places come next, covering physical evidence that might change, move, or disappear before a complaint gets filed. Physical and mental examinations round out the list, available where a person's condition itself is part of what needs to be preserved.

Notice what is missing from this list. Interrogatories are not on it, and neither are requests for admission, both staples of ordinary discovery in a filed case. That gap is not an oversight; it reflects the narrow function this chapter serves. A pre-filing petition exists to lock in evidence that might otherwise be lost, not to build out the petitioner's case or force the other side to answer written questions about its position. The same three methods, in the same order, reappear in Chapter 20 for discovery pending appeal, underscoring that both chapters share the same limited toolkit.