Under California Code of Civil Procedure 2025.620, you can present deposition testimony at trial in four main situations: to impeach a witness whose live testimony contradicts the transcript, to use an opposing party’s deposition for any purpose at all, to substitute the transcript when a non-party witness is unavailable or lives more than 150 miles from the courthouse, and to play the video deposition of an expert or treating physician even when that witness could appear live. The rules for using deposition testimony at trial in California only reach a party who was present at the deposition, was represented by counsel there, or received proper notice and did not object.
Impeaching a Witness With the Transcript
Impeachment is how deposition testimony most often reaches a jury. CCP 2025.620(a) lets any party use a deposition to contradict what the witness says on the stand. Counsel reads the specific page and line that conflicts with the live testimony, so the inconsistency lands in front of the jury in the witness’s own words.
California treats that prior statement as more than a credibility hit. Under Evidence Code 1235, a prior inconsistent statement is not blocked by the hearsay rule as long as the proper foundation under Evidence Code 770 is laid.1California Legislative Information. California Evidence Code 1235 The deposition answer comes in as substantive evidence. If a witness testified at deposition that the light was red, then says at trial it was green, the jury can rely on the deposition testimony as proof the light was actually red.
The foundation piece matters. The witness must be given a chance to explain or deny the earlier statement while still on the stand, or must remain subject to recall. If the witness has been excused without that opportunity, the court will generally exclude the prior statement unless the interests of justice require otherwise.2California Legislative Information. California Evidence Code 770
Using an Opposing Party’s Deposition
The rule for depositions of the other side is much broader. CCP 2025.620(b) lets an adverse party use the deposition of any opposing party for any purpose. It does not matter whether the deponent is in the courtroom, has already testified, or is scheduled to testify later. Availability is not a valid objection.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 2025.620
This reaches beyond named plaintiffs and defendants. It covers anyone who, at the time of the deposition, was an officer, director, managing agent, employee, agent, or person designated to testify on behalf of a party organization. If you deposed a company’s operations manager about a workplace accident, you can read that testimony into the record as direct evidence against the company at trial even though the manager is available to appear live.
When a Non-Party Witness Is Unavailable
For witnesses who are not parties or party agents, the transcript generally cannot substitute for a live appearance unless the witness qualifies as unavailable. CCP 2025.620(c)(2) lets the court admit the deposition for any purpose when the witness, through no fault of the offering party, falls into one of these categories:
- The witness has died, or cannot attend or testify because of a physical or mental condition.
- The witness is barred from testifying about the relevant subject on privilege grounds, or is otherwise legally disqualified.
- The witness is absent and the court cannot compel attendance through its subpoena power.
- The offering party used reasonable diligence to secure the witness’s attendance through the court’s process and could not.
Reasonable diligence trips people up most often. Judges expect concrete steps: subpoenas served or attempted, follow-up contact, documentation of why service failed. Saying “we couldn’t find them” without a paper trail is unlikely to satisfy the standard.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 2025.620
The 150-Mile Rule
An automatic exception applies when the witness lives more than 150 miles from the courthouse where trial is being held. Under CCP 2025.620(c)(1), you do not have to prove any of the unavailability categories. The distance alone is enough to let the deposition come in for any purpose. This comes up frequently with out-of-state witnesses and witnesses in distant parts of California.
Exceptional Circumstances
Even when none of the specific categories fit, CCP 2025.620(c)(3) gives the court a catch-all: if exceptional circumstances make it desirable to admit the deposition in the interests of justice, the court may allow it. Judges weigh the request against the strong preference for live testimony in open court and do not invoke this provision casually, but it exists for situations that do not fit the other boxes.
Video Depositions of Experts and Physicians
CCP 2025.620(d) creates a separate rule for treating physicians, consulting physicians, and expert witnesses. Their video-recorded depositions can be played at trial even if the expert could testify live. The exception exists for practical reasons: expert and physician schedules are expensive and hard to pin to a courtroom calendar.
Two conditions apply. First, the deposition notice must have reserved the right to use the recording at trial. If the original notice did not include that reservation, this avenue is closed. Second, the party must comply with CCP 2025.340(m), which governs how video testimony is presented to a jury.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 2025.620
Under those procedures, the offering party must notify the court and all other parties in writing about which portions of the video it intends to play, early enough for the other side to file written objections and for the judge to rule before trial. If the court sustains objections to certain portions, the party must suppress those segments or prepare an edited version. The original recording must be preserved. If no stenographic transcript was made at the time of the deposition, the party playing the video must supply one prepared from the recording.4California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 2025.340
The Rule of Completeness
When one side reads selected portions of a deposition, the other side is not stuck with the excerpt. Evidence Code 356 establishes the rule of completeness: if one party introduces part of a conversation or writing, the adverse party can require that other portions on the same subject also be admitted, along with any additional portions needed to make the introduced testimony understandable in context.5California Legislative Information. California Evidence Code 356
This matters in practice. An answer that sounds damaging in isolation often looks different once the follow-up questions are read. If your opponent reads three lines of your client’s deposition on cross, you can bring in the surrounding context right then, without waiting for redirect or your own case-in-chief.
Objections That Survive to Trial
Not every objection to deposition testimony waits until trial. CCP 2025.460 draws a line between objections that must be raised during the deposition and those that can be saved.
Objections waived if not raised at the deposition include privilege and work product (letting privileged material come out without objecting waives the protection) and curable errors such as problems with the form of a question, the oath, participant conduct, or other irregularities that could have been fixed on the spot.
Objections based on relevance, materiality, admissibility, or the competency of the witness do not need to be raised at the deposition. The statute treats them as unnecessary during the deposition itself, and failing to make them does not waive them.6California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 2025.460
Practical takeaway when defending: if a question is poorly formed, assumes facts not in evidence, or calls for privileged information, object on the spot. If the concern is that an answer is irrelevant or inadmissible, that fight can wait for trial.
Designating Testimony Before Trial
Before any deposition testimony reaches the jury, the parties go through a designation process. The side planning to use the deposition identifies the exact page and line numbers it wants admitted, and exchanges those designations with opposing counsel by a deadline set in the court’s pretrial order.
The opposing party then has a window to submit counter-designations, meaning additional portions of the same deposition that should come in for context or completeness. The opposing party also files written objections to specific testimony on grounds like hearsay, lack of foundation, or speculation. The trial judge rules on the objections before the testimony is presented to the jury, so nothing gets read in front of the panel that has not already been vetted.
Deadlines vary by judge and courthouse. Check the assigned judge’s standing order or pretrial scheduling order for exact dates. Missing a designation deadline can forfeit your right to use the testimony entirely.
Depositions in Summary Judgment Motions
Deposition testimony is not confined to trial. Under CCP 437c, deposition transcripts are one of the categories of evidence expressly named for supporting or opposing a motion for summary judgment, alongside declarations, admissions, and interrogatory answers.7Justia Law. California Code of Civil Procedure 437c-438
When citing a deposition in a summary judgment motion, reference the specific page and line numbers that support or dispute the material fact. The court considers all evidence in the papers except testimony to which objections have been sustained. If the excerpt creates a genuine factual dispute, that alone can be enough to defeat summary judgment.