Art. 1445.Submission to Witness; Changes; Signing

A deposition transcript is not finished the moment the reporter stops typing. Article 1445 gives the witness a chance to review it: once fully transcribed, the deposition is submitted to the witness and read to or by them, unless the witness and the parties waive that step. Any change the witness wants to make, in form or substance, gets entered onto the deposition along with the reason the witness gave for making it — the process corrects the record openly rather than letting a witness quietly rewrite testimony.

After review, the witness signs the deposition. That requirement gives way in several situations: the parties can stipulate to waive signing altogether, or the witness may be ill, absent from the parish where the deposition was taken, unable to be found, or refuses to sign. If thirty days pass after the deposition is submitted without a signature, the officer signs it instead and notes on the record why — waiver, illness, absence, or refusal, along with any reason given. From that point the deposition can be used as fully as if the witness had signed it, unless a motion to suppress under Article 1456 persuades the court that the reasons for refusing to sign require rejecting all or part of it.

Video depositions skip this process entirely. Because the recording itself preserves exactly what the witness said, a video deposition does not have to comply with the reading and signing requirements that apply to a transcribed deposition.