What Is a Deposition in a Massachusetts Injury Case?

A deposition is out-of-court testimony given under oath, in which a lawyer for one side asks a witness questions and a court reporter records every question and answer word for word. In a Massachusetts injury case it happens after the lawsuit is filed and before trial, usually in a law office or by video conference, with no judge in the room. The transcript can be used later to challenge what the witness says at trial, and a party’s own deposition can be used against that party for any purpose. The procedure is set by Rule 30 of the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure.

If you have been hurt and want to talk through what a lawsuit would involve, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free. This page is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice about your situation.

A few terms are used throughout. The deponent is the person being questioned. Discovery is the stage of a lawsuit in which each side is entitled to learn what the other side knows, and a deposition is one of its tools. A notice of deposition is the written document that sets the time and place. A subpoena is the command that requires a person who is not a party to the lawsuit to appear. The officer is the person, normally the court reporter, who swears the witness in and makes the record. A protective order is a court order that limits or blocks discovery to protect someone from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression or undue burden.

How a Deposition Works, Step by Step

1. The lawsuit is filed. Depositions belong to the discovery stage, so there has to be a pending case. (How a civil case is started, and which court it belongs in, is covered in what a civil case is in Massachusetts.) Under Rule 30(a)(1), a party may then depose “any person, including a party,” without asking the court’s permission, with a few exceptions covered below.
2. Written notice goes out. The party who wants the deposition must give written notice to every other party “at least 7 days before,” stating the time and place and the name of the deponent if known (Rule 30(b)(1)). In practice the lawyers usually agree on a date first.
3. A non-party gets a subpoena. A party to the case must appear on notice alone. A witness who is not a party, such as a bystander, a treating doctor or an employer, is compelled by a subpoena under Rule 45, which cannot be issued until the notice has been served.
4. The witness is sworn. The officer opens on the record with the case name, the date and place and who is present, then puts the deponent under oath or affirmation (Rule 30(b)(5)).
5. The lawyer who noticed the deposition asks questions. Rule 30(c)(1) says examination and cross-examination “proceed as they would at trial.” The other lawyers may ask questions afterward.
6. Objections are noted and the witness answers anyway. Under Rule 30(c)(2), an objection “must be noted on the record, but the examination still proceeds; the testimony is taken subject to any objection.”
7. The transcript is prepared and sent to the witness. Under Rule 30(e) the witness reads it, may make changes with reasons, and signs it. If it is not signed within 30 days, the officer signs it and it can be used as though the witness had.
8. The transcript becomes part of the case. It is used in settlement talks, in motions and, within the limits of Rule 32, at trial.

Who Can Be Deposed, and When Permission Is Needed

Rule 30(a)(1) reaches “any person, including a party.” In an injury case that normally means the injured person, the defendant, eyewitnesses, treating doctors, and sometimes a family member or employer who can speak to how the injury changed daily life or work. When the defendant is a company, Rule 30(b)(6) lets the notice name the organization and describe the subjects, and the organization must then choose one or more people to testify on its behalf about “information known or reasonably available to the organization.”

Permission from the court is required in four situations listed in Rule 30(a)(2):

• the deposition would take place within 30 days after the summons and complaint were served on a defendant, with two exceptions (the defendant has already started discovery, or the witness is about to leave Massachusetts and be unavailable);
• “there is no reasonable likelihood that recovery will exceed $7,000 if the plaintiff prevails,” unless the plaintiff mainly seeks equitable or declaratory relief;
• there has been a hearing before a master; or
• the deponent is confined in prison.

The second one matters in small cases. In a claim where the realistic recovery is under $7,000, neither side can take depositions as of right.

What Can Be Asked

The scope is wider than what a jury would be allowed to hear. Rule 26(b)(1) permits discovery “regarding any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action,” and adds that it “is not ground for objection that the information sought will be inadmissible at the trial if the information sought appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.”

In an injury case that usually means questions about the incident itself, earlier injuries and medical history, the treatment received, work and earnings, daily activities before and after, and earlier statements about what happened. Rule 26(b)(2) also makes the existence and contents of a liability insurance policy discoverable, although that information is not admissible at trial for that reason alone.

The limit is privilege. Communications between a client and the client’s own lawyer are the usual example, and a privilege objection is one of the few that lets a lawyer tell a witness not to answer.

What an Objection Does, and What It Does Not

People who have watched courtroom dramas expect an objection to stop a question. At a deposition there is no judge to rule, so the rule works differently.

Under Rule 30(c)(2), an objection is stated “concisely in a nonargumentative and nonsuggestive manner,” it goes on the record, and the witness answers. A judge decides later whether the answer can be used. A lawyer may instruct a deponent not to answer in only three situations: “when necessary to preserve a privilege, to enforce a limitation ordered by the court, or to present a motion under Rule 30(d)(2).”

That motion is the safety valve. Rule 30(d)(2) allows the deponent or a party to ask a court to end or limit a deposition that “is being conducted or is proceeding in bad faith or in a manner that unreasonably annoys, embarrasses, or oppresses the deponent or party,” and if the objecting person demands it, the deposition “must be suspended for the time necessary to obtain an order.” Rule 30(d)(1) allows a court to sanction anyone, including the deponent, “who impedes, unreasonably delays, or frustrates the fair progress of the examination.”

There is a reason lawyers object even though the witness answers anyway. Under Rule 32(d)(3)(B), an objection to the form of a question is waived unless it is made at the deposition. An objection to relevance is generally not waived and can be raised at trial.

How Long a Deposition Lasts

The Massachusetts rule sets no clock. Federal court is different: Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(d)(1) limits a deposition to “1 day of 7 hours” unless the parties agree or the court orders otherwise. Massachusetts Rule 30 has no equivalent sentence. The control in a Massachusetts state case is agreement between the lawyers, a protective order under Rule 26(c), or the Rule 30(d)(2) motion described above. How long a particular deposition runs depends on the witness and the case.

In Person or by Video

Since Rule 30 was amended in 2025, Rule 30(b)(4) allows a deposition to be taken by video conference at the choice of the party who notices it. The reporter’s notes to the amendment describe this as a “noticer’s choice” approach, adopted after the remote depositions of the pandemic years. A court may order a different arrangement “for good cause shown.” A deposition by telephone still requires a court order or the written agreement of all parties.

The rule adds requirements that a witness should know about:

• The notice must identify the video platform and give the information needed to join.
• The reporter may swear the witness in remotely, as long as the reporter “can both see and hear the deponent.”
• Everyone in the same room as the witness “must separately log in” so each person is identified, and if anyone enters the room during the deposition, the witness or counsel “shall immediately notify” the other participants.
• The sound and video feeds of the witness, the lawyers and the reporter stay on while the deposition is on the record.
• A remote deposition is treated as taken “in the county and at the place where the deponent is located.”

A stenographic record is always made unless the parties agree otherwise (Rule 30(b)(3)(B)). The noticing party may also record on video, and the notice must say so.

Deposition, Interrogatories, Recorded Statement and Trial Testimony Compared

	Deposition	Interrogatories	Recorded statement to an insurer	Trial testimony
Under oath	Yes, sworn by the officer (Rule 30(b)(5))	Yes, signed “under the penalties of perjury” (Rule 33(a)(3))	Not a court procedure; no court rule governs it	Yes
Form	Spoken questions and answers, recorded word for word	Written questions, written answers	A recorded conversation with an adjuster	Spoken, before a judge or jury
When	After suit is filed	After suit is filed	Usually before any suit	At trial
Who can be questioned	Any person, including non-parties	Parties only	Whoever agrees to speak	Any witness
Limits	Leave of court in four situations; no fixed hour limit in the Massachusetts rule	No more than 30 as of right; answers due in 45 days	None set by court rule	Rules of evidence apply in full
Who rules on objections	No one at the time; a judge later	A judge on motion	No one	The judge, on the spot

Two differences matter most. A deposition is the only one of the pre-trial tools where the other side’s lawyer hears the witness answer in real time and can follow up. And unlike a recorded statement to an insurance company, a deposition happens inside a lawsuit, on notice to every party, with rules about what can be done with the answers.

Reading, Correcting and Signing the Transcript

Rule 30(e) gives the witness a right that many people do not know about. When the transcript is ready it “shall be submitted to the witness for examination” and read by or to the witness, unless the witness and the parties waive that step. The rule then says: “Any changes in form or substance which the witness desires to make shall be entered upon the deposition transcript by the officer with a statement of the reasons given by the witness for making them.”

Two things follow from the text. A witness can correct a real mistake, including a substantive one. And the correction is entered with the reasons for it; the rule does not say the original answer disappears. The witness then signs. If the transcript “is not signed by the witness within 30 days of its submission,” the officer signs it and notes why, and it “may then be used as fully as though signed.”

How a Deposition Is Used Afterward

Rule 32(a) sets out when a deposition can be used in court. The four provisions work differently depending on who the witness is.

1. To contradict. “Any deposition may be used by any party for the purpose of contradicting or impeaching the testimony of deponent as a witness.” If a witness says one thing at the deposition and another at trial, the jury hears both.
2. A party’s own words. The deposition of a party, or of an officer, director, managing agent or designated representative of an organization that is a party, “may be used by an adverse party for any purpose.” An injured person’s deposition can be read to the jury by the defense, and the defendant’s by the plaintiff.
3. An unavailable witness. A deposition can stand in for live testimony if the court finds the witness is dead, “out of the Commonwealth,” unable to attend “because of age, sickness, infirmity, or imprisonment,” or cannot be brought in by subpoena, or in exceptional circumstances. The reporter’s note explains that Massachusetts uses the state line, which is also the limit of the subpoena power, in place of the 100-mile test in the federal rule it was drawn from.
4. Fairness. If one side offers part of a deposition, the other side “may require him to introduce any other part which ought in fairness to be considered with the part introduced.”

There is one more use specific to injury cases. Under Rule 30(n), a party who plans to call a treating physician or an expert may take that witness’s deposition on video “for the purpose of its being used as evidence at trial in lieu of oral testimony.” The notice cannot be served sooner than six months after the case began, or until 30 days after a written report from the witness has gone to all parties. This is one way a jury can hear from a treating doctor without the doctor coming to court.

Most cases never reach a courtroom, and the more common use of a deposition is in evaluating the case. Each side sees how the other side’s witnesses come across and what they will say under oath. See how long a Massachusetts car accident settlement takes for where discovery sits in the life of a case.

If You Are a Witness and Not a Party

A person with no stake in the case can still be required to testify. Rule 45 and two statutes set the terms.

• Who issues the subpoena. A clerk of court, a notary public or a justice of the peace (Rule 45(a); M.G.L. c. 233, sec. 1).
• How it is served. By delivering a copy, reading it to the person, or leaving a copy at the person’s home, together with “the fees for one day’s attendance and the mileage allowed by law” (Rule 45(c)). M.G.L. c. 262, sec. 29 sets the witness fee at “six dollars a day, and ten cents a mile for travel out and home.”
• How far you can be made to travel. A Massachusetts resident “shall not be required to attend an examination” at a place “more than 50 airline miles distant from either his residence, place of employment, or place of business, whichever is nearest” (Rule 45(d)(2)), unless a court orders otherwise.
• Documents. A subpoena may also command documents. A person commanded to produce them may serve a written objection within 10 days, and then the documents need not be turned over without a court order (Rule 45(d)(1)).
• Relief. Rule 45(b) requires the party serving a subpoena to “take reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden or expense,” and allows a court to quash or modify a subpoena that is “unreasonable and oppressive.”

What Happens If Someone Does Not Show Up

The consequences depend on who failed to appear.

• A party who skips their own deposition. Under Rule 37(d), if a party “willfully fails” to appear after proper notice, the court “may make such orders in regard to the failure as are just,” including the sanctions listed in Rule 37(b)(2), and may require the party, the party’s lawyer or both to pay the reasonable expenses caused, including attorney’s fees. The rule closes the obvious excuse: the failure “may not be excused on the ground that the discovery sought is objectionable unless the party failing to act has applied for a protective order.”
• The lawyer who scheduled it and did not proceed. Under Rule 30(g), a party who attends expecting a deposition may recover reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, if the noticing party failed to attend or failed to subpoena a non-party witness who then did not come.

Answer Capsule

A deposition in a Massachusetts injury case is sworn testimony taken outside court, after a lawsuit is filed, in which a lawyer questions a witness and a court reporter records every word. Mass. R. Civ. P. 30 governs it. Any person, including a party, may be deposed on at least 7 days’ written notice; a non-party is compelled by subpoena under Rule 45 and cannot be made to travel more than 50 airline miles. Court permission is needed in four situations, including where recovery is not reasonably likely to exceed $7,000. Questions may cover any non-privileged matter relevant to the subject of the case (Rule 26(b)(1)). Objections are noted and the witness answers anyway; a lawyer may instruct a witness not to answer only to preserve a privilege, enforce a court-ordered limit or bring a motion to stop an abusive examination. The Massachusetts rule sets no hour limit. A deposition may be taken by video conference at the noticing party’s choice. The witness may review the transcript and make changes with reasons within 30 days. Under Rule 32, a deposition can be used to contradict a witness at trial, and a party’s own deposition can be used by the other side for any purpose.

Where a Deposition Sits in the Timeline of a Claim

Most injury claims are resolved with an insurer and never involve a deposition, because a deposition requires a filed lawsuit. An action for personal injuries must be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrues under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A, and discovery follows the filing. A person who has only an insurance claim open may be asked for a recorded statement, and that is not a deposition under Rule 30.

Related pages: how fault is determined after a Massachusetts car accident, the independent medical exam, how social media is used in an injury claim, traffic camera footage as evidence and what personal injury lawyers charge in Massachusetts.

Key terms

• Deposition: sworn, out-of-court questioning of a witness, recorded word for word, taken under Mass. R. Civ. P. 30 after a lawsuit is filed.
• Deponent: the person who is questioned at a deposition.
• Discovery: the pre-trial stage in which each side may obtain information from the other side and from witnesses.
• Subpoena: a command, issued by a clerk, notary public or justice of the peace, requiring a person to appear and testify or to produce documents.
• Protective order: a court order under Rule 26(c) that limits or blocks discovery to protect a person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression or undue burden or expense.
• Impeach: to challenge a witness’s testimony at trial by showing an earlier statement that conflicts with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is a deposition in simple terms?

A: It is a question-and-answer session under oath that takes place outside court, before trial. A lawyer asks the questions, the witness answers, and a court reporter writes down everything said. In Massachusetts state court it is governed by Rule 30 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

Q: Do I have to go to a deposition in Massachusetts?

A: A party to the lawsuit must appear when properly noticed, and Rule 37(d) allows a court to sanction a party who willfully fails to. A person who is not a party must appear if served with a subpoena under Rule 45, but a Massachusetts resident cannot be required to travel more than 50 airline miles from home, work or place of business unless a court orders it.

Q: Can I refuse to answer a question at a deposition?

A: Rarely. Under Rule 30(c)(2), objections are noted and the testimony is taken anyway. A lawyer may instruct a witness not to answer only to preserve a privilege, to enforce a limit a court has ordered, or to bring a motion to stop an examination conducted in bad faith or in a way that unreasonably annoys, embarrasses or oppresses the witness.

Q: How long does a deposition take in Massachusetts?

A: The Massachusetts rule sets no time limit, unlike the federal rule, which limits a deposition to one day of seven hours. Length depends on the witness and the issues. If an examination becomes abusive, Rule 30(d)(2) allows the witness or a party to ask a court to end or limit it.

Q: Can a deposition be done over Zoom or another video platform?

A: Yes. Since a 2025 amendment, Rule 30(b)(4) lets the party who schedules the deposition choose a video conference. Everyone in the room with the witness must log in separately, and the witness’s video and sound stay on while the deposition is on the record. A court can order a different arrangement for good cause.

Q: Can I change my answers after the deposition?

A: Rule 30(e) lets the witness review the transcript and make “changes in form or substance,” which the officer enters along with the witness’s reasons. The witness then signs. If the transcript is not signed within 30 days after it is submitted to the witness, the officer signs it and it can be used as though the witness had.

Q: Can my deposition be used against me at trial?

A: Yes. Under Rule 32(a)(2), the deposition of a party may be used by an adverse party for any purpose. Under Rule 32(a)(1), any deposition may be used to contradict a witness whose trial testimony differs from it.

Q: Is a deposition the same as a recorded statement to an insurance company?

A: No. A recorded statement is a conversation with an adjuster, usually before any lawsuit, and no court rule governs it. A deposition takes place inside a filed lawsuit, under oath, before an officer, on notice to every party, with rules on objections and on how the testimony can be used.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This page is general information about Massachusetts law for educational purposes. It is not legal advice for your situation and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own case, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS.

Talking to a Lawyer

A deposition is the point in a case where each side hears the other’s account under oath for the first time, and what is said there stays in the record. If you have been hurt and are weighing whether to bring a claim, or you have been told a deposition is coming, the questions worth asking early are what the case will require of you and which deadlines are already running. Call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free.