When a corporate defendant is sued in a federal court outside its home state, the issue of where its deposition will be conducted can become a bone of contention. The traditional rule, accepted by most practitioners, is that the deposition will take place at the corporate defendant’s principal place of business as opposed to the forum district. This “rule” may require plaintiff’s counsel to take the time and incur the expense to travel a long way to partake in this basic form of discovery.

Before you advise your client that its witness will not have to travel to sit for his or her deposition, however, take a look at the law in the district where your case is pending. A corporate defendant’s ability to convince a federal district court judge to mandate that plaintiff’s counsel travel to the corporate defendant’s principal place of business to take the defendant’s deposition is no sure thing.…

Continue Reading Home or Away? Where Should That Deposition Take Place?