NEW LAW LIMITING DEPOSITIONS TO SEVEN HOURS
Governor Jerry Brown just signed a new law limiting the length of depositions in civil cases to a maximum of seven hours, a time restriction mirrored in Federal deposition rules. Employment cases and cases deemed as "complex" are excluded from this time constraint.
The time constraints can be lengthened per the parties' agreement to do so, or by court order if necessary.
The bill was lobbied for by the Consumer Attorneys of California, the state's largest voluntary bar association consisting of attorneys who primarily represent plaintiffs in personal injury actions.
Proponents of the new law see it as a means of preventing litigants from being harassed through marathon multiple day deposition sessions.
Curiously, the law was opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce, an organization that regularly criticizes what it perceives as "lawsuit abuse".
In the experience of this practitioner, it is very rare for any deposition to last as long as seven hours, and it has not been my general experience that lawyers abuse depositions just to create hardship for the witness.
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