Rule 32.Use of depositions in court proceedings.

Rule 32(a) lists the ways a deposition may be used at trial or on a motion: to contradict or impeach the deponent's own testimony by any party; as substantive evidence by any adverse party when the deponent was called as a witness; by any adverse party for any purpose, whether or not the deponent testifies live, when the deponent was a party or an officer, director, managing agent, or Rule 30(b)(6)/31(a) designee of a party; by any party for any purpose when the court finds the witness dead, more than 100 miles from the courthouse or outside the United States (and not through the offering party's own doing), unable to attend because of age, illness, infirmity, or imprisonment, unreachable by subpoena despite the offering party's efforts, in exceptional circumstances that make deposition testimony preferable in the interest of justice, or an expert whose testimony was videotaped under Rule 30(b)(4); and, when only part of a deposition is offered, an adverse party may require the offering party to introduce any other relevant part, and any party may introduce further parts. Substituting a party under Rule 25 doesn't affect the right to use a deposition already taken, and a deposition properly taken and filed in a dismissed case may be used again in a later case on the same subject matter between the same parties or their successors.

Rule 32(b) preserves the right to object at trial to a deposition's admissibility on any ground that would exclude the evidence if the witness testified live, subject to Rules 28(b) and 32(d)(3). Rule 32(c) makes clear that taking someone's deposition doesn't make them your own witness; introducing the deposition for a purpose other than impeachment does make the deponent the introducing party's witness, except for the adverse-party uses described in (a)(2) and (a)(3), and either side may rebut relevant deposition evidence regardless of who introduced it. Rule 32(d) sorts out which errors and irregularities are waived: notice defects are waived unless promptly objected to in writing; objections to the deposition officer's disqualification are waived unless raised before or as soon as the disqualification is discovered; competency, relevancy, and materiality objections are generally not waived by silence during the deposition (unless the problem could have been fixed at the time); errors in the manner of examination, form of questions or answers, oath, or conduct of the parties are waived unless promptly objected to during the deposition; objections to the form of Rule 31 written questions are waived unless served within the time allowed for the next round of questions and within five days of the last authorized questions; and errors in completing or returning the deposition are handled under their own timing rule.