North Carolina depositions: 10 days' notice, or 15 if anyone lives out of state

North Carolina's notice period is not one number. It depends on where the people you have to serve actually live — and getting it wrong is the easiest way to lose a deposition date.

Ten days, or fifteen

Rule 30(b)(1):

The notice shall be served on all parties at least 15 days prior to the taking of the deposition when any party required to be served resides without the State and shall be served on all parties at least 10 days prior to the taking of the deposition when all of the parties required to be served reside within the State.

Note what triggers the longer period: a party residing out of state, not the deponent. A deposition of a local witness in a case with one out-of-state defendant still needs fifteen days.

No subpoena for a party or a party's people

Rule 30(a) removes a step that costs time and money elsewhere:

provided that no subpoena need be served on a deponent who is a party or an officer, director or managing agent of a party, provided the party has been served with notice pursuant to subsection (b)(1) of this rule.

The notice does the work. For a party, or for that party's officer, director or managing agent, service of the Rule 30(b)(1) notice compels attendance on its own.

The corollary matters just as much: for anyone else, a subpoena under Rule 45 is still required, and North Carolina's subpoena rule has its own features — the ten-day objection window, and the custodian's right to mail certified records instead of appearing. See North Carolina subpoenas.

Where a non-resident can be made to attend

A nonresident of the State may be required to attend for such examination only in the county wherein he resides or within 50 miles of the place of service except that a judge, as defined by subdivision (h) of this rule, may, upon motion showing good cause, require that a party who selected the county where the action is pending as the forum for the action or an officer, director or managing agent of such a party, or a person designated pursuant to subsection (b)(6) hereof to testify on behalf of such a party present himself for the taking of his deposition in the county where the action is pending.

The default protects a non-resident: their own county, or within 50 miles of where they were served.

The exception is pointed, and it is aimed at plaintiffs. A party who chose the forum county — along with that party's officers, directors, managing agents and Rule 30(b)(6) designees — can be ordered to come there on a motion showing good cause. Pick your venue and you may have to travel to it.

Two categories that need leave

Rule 30(a) requires a court order for depositions of people the rule treats as especially vulnerable:

The deposition of a person confined in prison or of a patient receiving in-patient care in or confined to an institution or hospital for the mentally ill or mentally handicapped may be taken only by leave of court on such terms as the court prescribes.

Both categories, and the court sets the terms. Build the motion into the schedule rather than discovering the requirement a week out.

Recording it

Rule 30(b)(4) is permissive about method: "Unless the court orders otherwise, testimony at a deposition may be recorded by sound recording, sound-and-visual, or stenographic means." The noticing party chooses, subject to a contrary order.

Early depositions by a plaintiff

Rule 30(b)(2) carries the special-notice provision that lets a plaintiff move quickly where a witness is about to become unavailable: leave is not required if the notice "states that the person to be examined is about to go out of the State" and will be unavailable for examination unless deposed before the ordinary time expires.

The protection for a party caught short follows: a party who shows that when served with such a notice it "was unable through the exercise of diligence to obtain counsel to represent" it at the deposition is protected against the deposition being used against it.

Protective relief

Rule 30 gives the judge the full range: on granting a motion in relation to a deposition the judge "may make any other orders allowed by Rule 26(c) with respect thereto, including orders with respect to the expenses" of the deposition. Where the dispute is really about a party's refusal to cooperate, the North Carolina motion to compel discovery is the route.

Objections during the deposition

Rule 30(c) keeps the deposition moving whatever is objected to:

All objections made at the time of the examination to the qualifications of the person before whom the deposition is taken, or to the manner of taking it, or to the evidence presented, or to the conduct of any party, and any other objection to the proceedings, shall be noted upon the deposition by the person before whom the deposition is taken.

The design is the same everywhere it appears: note it and carry on. The objection is preserved, the answer is given, and the admissibility question is decided later by the court rather than at the table.

North Carolina names "the person before whom the deposition is taken" rather than "the officer," but the mechanism is identical: the objection is recorded and the examination continues.

A short checklist

Noticing one:

1. Check where every party to be served lives — 15 days if any is out of state, 10 if all are in.
2. Skip the subpoena for a party or a party's officer, director or managing agent; the notice compels attendance.
3. Issue a subpoena for everyone else, under Rule 45.
4. Get leave for a prisoner or an institutional patient before scheduling anything.
5. Choose the recording method in the notice; you need no stipulation.
6. Consider a good-cause motion to bring a forum-choosing party to the forum county.

Receiving one:

1. Count the notice days against the residence of the parties, not the deponent.
2. Check the location if you are a non-resident — your county, or 50 miles from where you were served.
3. Ask whether a subpoena was needed and served, if you are not a party or a party's officer.
4. Move under Rule 26(c) for protection, including as to expenses.

Where these rules live

• N.C. R. Civ. P. 26 — General Provisions Governing Discovery
• N.C. R. Civ. P. 30 — Depositions upon oral examination
• N.C. R. Civ. P. 32 — Use of Depositions in Court Proceedings
• N.C. R. Civ. P. 45 — Subpoena
• North Carolina subpoenas
• North Carolina discovery deadlines
• North Carolina motion to compel discovery

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and subdivision (h)'s definition of "judge" governs who may make the orders described above.