Objections and Responses to Notice of Deposition
(NC)

Summary

This template objections and responses to a notice of deposition can be used in a North Carolina state court case. This template includes practical guidance and drafting notes. A party who wants to take an oral deposition must give at least 10 days' notice in writing to every other party to the action, or 15 days' notice if any party resides outside North Carolina. N.C. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(1). You may also object to the notice if it does not state the required information, such as when, where, and how the examination will take place. While these objections are not required, they memorialize the entity's positions and can facilitate a resolution prior to the deposition. While you may use this template to memorialize your objections to a deposition notice for the record, in practice attorneys typically resolve deposition notice deficiencies informally by phone or email and ask the deposing party to issue a corrected notice. If the deposing party does not send a corrected notice within a reasonable time, summarize your agreement in a message to its attorney and consider moving for a protective order. Note there is no limit to the number of depositions that may be taken under Rule 30. This contrasts to the corresponding federal rule, Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(a)(2)(A), which imposes a presumptive limit of 10 depositions per side. There is also no express prohibition anywhere in the discovery rules against deposing a party or witness more than one time, but this should only be permitted for extraordinary reasons, such as a substantial change in circumstances. See Taylor v. Taylor Prods., Inc., 105 N.C. App. 620, 631 (1992). One of the most common issues with a notice of deposition is not technically a basis for a formal objection: the time and date of the deposition. If your client is not available at the noticed time, thus work with the deposing party's counsel to find a mutually-agreeable alternate time. This template is designed for objections to a notice of deposition that seeks to depose a named individual, not a notice of deposition that seeks to depose a corporate, government, or other similar entity under N.C. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6). For objections to a 30(b)(6) deposition, see Objections and Responses to Notice of Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition (NC). For information on defending depositions, see Depositions: Preparing for and Defending an Individual's Deposition (NC) and Deposition Objections Checklist (NC).