Rule 57.05.Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken.

Rule 57.05 answers a narrow but essential question: who is allowed to swear in a deponent and take down the testimony. Within Missouri, that has to be someone authorized under state law to administer oaths, or a person the court appoints for that purpose, and either one has the power to administer the oath and take testimony. Elsewhere in the United States or in a U.S. territory, the equivalent authority comes from federal law or the law of the place where the examination happens, or again from a person the court appoints.

Depositions taken in a foreign country have three routes: on notice before someone authorized to administer oaths under the law of that place or under U.S. law; before a person the court commissions, who then has the power to administer the oath and take testimony; or pursuant to a letter rogatory, a formal request addressed to the appropriate authority in the named country. A commission or letter rogatory issues on application and notice, on terms the court finds just, and neither requires a showing that taking the deposition some other way would be impracticable or inconvenient — both routes can be used even when the ordinary methods might have worked. Evidence obtained through a letter rogatory is not excluded merely because it lacks a verbatim transcript, was not taken under oath, or otherwise departs from how a domestic deposition is normally conducted.

The rule closes with a disqualification: no deposition may be taken before someone who is a relative, employee, attorney, or counsel of any party, a relative or employee of that attorney or counsel, or anyone financially interested in the action. That bar protects the neutrality of the person administering the oath and recording the testimony, regardless of where the deposition happens.