Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

There is a lot of procedure you need to follow to introduce any evidence, there is extra procedure you need to follow to introduce video taped deposition evidence.

There are a lot of rules about using depositions, and videotape depositions at trial.

First of all, an adverse party may use the deposition of aparty or "party affiliated" deponent for any purpose, such as impeachment or substantive evidence against such party. In this situation, it is not ground for objection that the party deponent is present and willing to testify in person, or has already testfied.

If it is a nonparty deponent, the deposition of an indpendent witness may be used to impeach or contradict live testimony given by that witness at time of trial. (Code Civ. Proc., sect. 2025.620 subd. (a).) Note that this requires them to testify first.

Other than impeachment, you can't use a deposition for a testimony of a nonparty witness unless you show that they are unavailable to testify. This manes that you have to show that the deponent is: dead, unable to attend or testify because of illness or infirmity, resides more than 150 miles from the courthouse, is incapapable of being served with a subpoena despite reasonable diligence, or is precluded from testimony concerning the matter on grounds of privilege.