Rule 28.Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken.

Inside Rhode Island, subdivision (a) requires the deposition to be taken before an officer authorized by state law to administer oaths, or before a person the court appoints, who then has power to give the oath and take testimony. The same subdivision adds a practical exception: in a non-stenographic deposition, no officer or court-appointed person need be present at all. Rule 30(c) then puts the oath in the hands of the examining attorney or self-represented litigant.

Subdivision (b) handles witnesses in another state, a United States territory or possession, or a foreign country. There are three routes: notice before a person authorized to administer oaths where the examination is held, whether by local law or by the law of the United States including a treaty or convention; a commission from the court, which carries the oath power with it; or a letter of request, which may or may not be captioned a letter rogatory and may be addressed to the appropriate authority in the named place. A commission or a letter of request issues on application and notice and on terms that are just and appropriate. It is not necessary to show that taking the deposition some other way would be impracticable or inconvenient, and the court may issue both a commission and a letter of request in a proper case.

Foreign evidence gets a tolerant reception. Testimony obtained in a foreign country in response to a letter of request need not be excluded merely because it is not a verbatim transcript, was not taken under oath, or departs in some similar way from what these rules require for depositions taken within the United States.

Subdivision (c) disqualifies the interested. No deposition may be taken before a relative, employee, attorney or counsel of any party, before a relative or employee of that attorney or counsel, or before anyone financially interested in the action. Rule 32(e)(2) is the matching trap: an objection based on the officer's disqualification is waived unless made before the deposition begins or as soon as the problem becomes known or could be discovered with reasonable diligence.