Using deposition transcripts and video at trial in Nevada: what NRCP 32 allows, and what the court actually reads

The three conditions for using any deposition in court

NRCP 32 starts with a gate that every use must pass. Under NRCP 32(a)(1), at a hearing or trial "all or part of a deposition may be used against a party on these conditions": the party "was present or represented at the taking of the deposition or had reasonable notice of it"; the deposition "is used to the extent it would be admissible under Nevada law of evidence if the deponent were present and testifying"; and the use "is allowed by Rule 32(a)(2) through (8)".

Each condition points back to the day of the deposition. The notice condition is why NRCP 30(b)(1) requires not less than 14 days' written notice to every other party. The evidence condition means the testimony comes in only to the extent the witness could have given it live. The third condition sends you to the specific uses in the rest of the rule, taken in turn below. From the reporter's chair, everything that follows assumes an accurate, certified record of what was asked and answered; the transcript is not a summary, it is the testimony.

Impeachment: the use every witness should expect

The most common courtroom use of a deposition is to confront a witness with an earlier answer. NRCP 32(a)(2): "Any party may use a deposition to contradict or impeach the testimony given by the deponent as a witness, or for any other purpose allowed by Nevada law of evidence." This use is available to any party, against any deponent who takes the stand, and it does not depend on the witness being unavailable.

In practice counsel reads the question and answer from the certified transcript, page and line, and asks the witness whether that was the testimony. If the deposition was video recorded, the clip may be played instead. Either way the words have to be exact, which is why a witness who hedges or changes an answer at trial is measured against a verbatim record rather than anyone's memory of the deposition.

This is also why witnesses should use the review period if one was requested. Under NRCP 30(e)(1), a deponent who requested review before the deposition was completed has 30 days after the officer's notice of availability to review the transcript or recording and to sign a statement listing any changes in form or substance and the reasons. Those changes are attached to the officer's certificate (NRCP 30(e)(2)); they do not erase the original answer, and both travel with the transcript.

A party's own deposition: usable for any purpose

A party's deposition stands on a different footing from a bystander's. NRCP 32(a)(3): "An adverse party may use for any purpose the deposition of a party or anyone who, when deposed, was the party's officer, director, managing agent, or designee under Rule 30(b)(6) or 31(a)(4)." No showing of unavailability is required. The opposing side may read a party's deposition into evidence as part of its own case even if the party is sitting in the courtroom.

The designee language reaches organizational witnesses. When a corporation, partnership, association, governmental agency or other entity is named in a notice or subpoena under NRCP 30(b)(6), it must designate one or more officers, directors or managing agents, or other persons who consent to testify on its behalf, and those designees "must testify about information known or reasonably available to the organization". The adverse party may then use that testimony for any purpose. In Clark County, the Eighth Judicial District Court's Administrative Order 22-08 adds that the entity "must only prepare the designee and be willing to be bound by the designee's testimony". Our guide to Rule 30(b)(6) depositions in Nevada covers preparation and the counting rules.

For reporters this is the deposition most likely to be read aloud at trial in full passages rather than quoted in fragments, and the one where exhibit handling matters most. Documents marked at the deposition are, on a party's request, attached to the transcript (NRCP 30(f)(2)), so a passage read at trial carries its exhibit references with it.

When the witness cannot come: the unavailability grounds

For a witness who is not a party, the deposition generally substitutes for live testimony only if the court finds the witness unavailable. NRCP 32(a)(4) lets a party "use for any purpose the deposition of a witness, whether or not a party" on five findings:

• "that the witness is dead" (NRCP 32(a)(4)(A));
• "that the witness is more than 100 miles from the place of hearing or trial or is out of the state, unless it appears that the witness's absence was procured by the party offering the deposition" (NRCP 32(a)(4)(B));
• "that the witness cannot attend or testify because of age, illness, infirmity, or imprisonment" (NRCP 32(a)(4)(C));
• "that the party offering the deposition could not procure the witness's attendance by subpoena" (NRCP 32(a)(4)(D)); or
• "on motion and notice, that exceptional circumstances make it desirable - in the interest of justice and with due regard to the importance of live testimony in open court - to permit the deposition to be used" (NRCP 32(a)(4)(E)).

The 100-mile ground is measured from the place of hearing or trial. For a trial at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas, a witness in Reno, Utah, Arizona or California who was deposed here may be presented by transcript or video under NRCP 32(a)(4)(B), subject to the procured-absence exception and the court's finding. Which witnesses qualify is your attorney's call.

Two limits: short notice and the early deposition

NRCP 32(a)(5) withholds a deposition from use in two situations. The first is the short-notice bar. Under NRCP 32(a)(5)(A), a deposition "must not be used against a party who, having received less than 14 days' notice of the deposition, promptly moved for a protective order under Rule 26(c)(1)(B) requesting that it not be taken or be taken at a different time or place - and this motion was still pending when the deposition was taken." The 14 days match the notice period in NRCP 30(b)(1).

The second concerns a deposition taken early. NRCP 30(a)(2)(A)(iii) ordinarily requires leave of court to depose someone before the time specified in NRCP 26(a), unless the noticing party certifies that the deponent is expected to leave Nevada and be unavailable afterward. Under NRCP 32(a)(5)(B), a deposition taken without leave under that unavailability provision must not be used against a party who shows that, when served with the notice, it could not, despite diligent efforts, obtain an attorney to represent it at the deposition; the court may nonetheless permit use against a party who proceeds pro se after the deposition.

Both limits turn on dates in the notice and the deposition record, which is one reason the officer's opening statement under NRCP 30(b)(5)(A) fixes the date, time and place on the record.

Completeness, substituted parties and depositions from earlier cases

Three shorter provisions round out the permitted uses. The rule of completeness, NRCP 32(a)(6): "If a party offers in evidence only part of a deposition, an adverse party may require the offeror to introduce other parts that in fairness should be considered with the part introduced, and any party may itself introduce any other parts." Counsel who designate a passage should expect the other side to designate the surrounding pages, and the transcript must be complete enough to supply them.

Substitution of a party under NRCP 25 "does not affect the right to use a deposition previously taken" (NRCP 32(a)(7)). And under NRCP 32(a)(8), a deposition lawfully taken and, if required, filed in any federal or state court action "may be used in a later action involving the same subject matter between the same parties, or their representatives or successors in interest, to the same extent as if taken in the later action", and a previously taken deposition may also be used as Nevada evidence law allows.

That last provision is a reason to treat every transcript as a long-lived document. A Nevada certified court reporter retains the notes for 8 years when they concern a matter subject to judicial review (NRS 656.335), and under NRCP 30(f)(3) the officer furnishes a copy of the transcript or recording to any party or the deponent when paid reasonable charges.

Objections: which survive to trial and which are waived

NRCP 32(b) preserves the basic evidentiary objection: subject to NRCP 28(b) and NRCP 32(d)(3), "an objection may be made at a hearing or trial to the admission of any deposition testimony that would be inadmissible if the witness were present and testifying." So relevance, hearsay and similar objections can still be argued when the transcript is offered, which is why the deposition itself proceeds with objections simply noted on the record (NRCP 30(c)(2)).

NRCP 32(d) then lists what is waived if not raised at the time. The categories matter to anyone planning to use a transcript later.

• To the notice (NRCP 32(d)(1)). An objection to an error or irregularity in a deposition notice "is waived unless promptly served in writing on the party giving the notice."
• To the officer's qualification (NRCP 32(d)(2)). An objection based on disqualification of the officer is waived if not made before the deposition begins, or promptly after the basis becomes known or with reasonable diligence could have been known. The disqualification grounds are in NRCP 28(c): a party's relative, employee or attorney; someone related to or employed by a party's attorney; or anyone financially interested in the action.
• To competence, relevance or materiality (NRCP 32(d)(3)(A)). These objections are not waived by silence at the deposition, "unless the ground for it might have been corrected at that time."
• To errors that could have been fixed on the spot (NRCP 32(d)(3)(B)). An objection "to the manner of taking the deposition, the form of a question or answer, the oath or affirmation, a party's conduct, or other matters that might have been corrected at that time" is waived if not timely made during the deposition.
• To how the officer completed and returned the deposition (NRCP 32(d)(4)). An objection to how the officer transcribed the testimony, "or prepared, signed, certified, sealed, endorsed, sent, or otherwise dealt with the deposition", is waived "unless a motion to suppress is made promptly after the error or irregularity becomes known or, with reasonable diligence, could have been known."

In Clark County, Administrative Order 22-08 overlays its own objection regime on depositions in cases assigned to a discovery commissioner or hearing master: form objections are stated in two parts, naming that the form is objectionable and the specific way it is, and speaking and string objections are prohibited. Clean, one-voice objections make a clean transcript, and a clean transcript is what gets read at trial.

Transcript or video? The form-of-presentation rule

Attorneys sometimes assume a video deposition replaces the transcript. In Nevada it does not. NRCP 32(c): "Unless the court orders otherwise, a party must provide a transcript of any deposition testimony the party offers, but may provide the court with the testimony in nontranscript form as well." The transcript is always required; the video is an addition.

The second sentence of NRCP 32(c) then favors video in front of a jury: "On any party's request, deposition testimony offered in a jury trial for any purpose other than impeachment must be presented in nontranscript form, if available, unless the court for good cause orders otherwise." So if a deposition was video recorded and either side asks, the jury watches the witness rather than hearing counsel read, except for impeachment, where the page-and-line reading remains the norm.

That pairing is why synchronized video, with the certified transcript time-linked to the recording, is the practical standard for trial presentation. The clip the jury sees and the transcript the court and the appellate record rely on are the same testimony, line for line. Western Reporting Services provides legal videography alongside its stenographic and voice-writing reporters for depositions across the Las Vegas valley.

Legal videography under the Nevada rules

Nevada licenses no deposition videographer. NRS 656 regulates reporting by voice writing and shorthand writing only, and no other chapter of the statutes read for this guide regulates videographers. What the rules do regulate is the recording itself and the officer's duties around it.

The noticing party chooses and pays for the method. Under NRCP 30(b)(3)(A), the notice must state the method for recording the testimony; unless the court orders otherwise, "testimony may be recorded by audio, audiovisual, or stenographic means", and "The noticing party bears the recording costs." Under NRCP 30(b)(3)(B), any other party may, with prior notice, designate an additional method at its own expense unless the court orders otherwise.

The officer still runs the record. NRCP 30(b)(5)(B): "If the deposition is recorded nonstenographically, the officer must repeat the items in Rule 30(b)(5)(A)(i)-(iii) at the beginning of each unit of the recording medium. The deponent's and attorneys' appearance or demeanor must not be distorted through recording techniques." The items repeated are the officer's name and business address, the date, time and place, and the deponent's name. The officer, not the videographer, certifies in writing that the witness was duly sworn and that the deposition accurately records the testimony (NRCP 30(f)(1)), and retains a copy of the recording of a deposition taken by a nonstenographic method (NRCP 30(f)(3)).

The 2019 Advisory Committee Note to NRCP 30 adds that any dispute over the accuracy of a transcription made from an audio or video recording "should be resolved by the court or discovery commissioner." A stenographic record made live by the certified officer avoids that detour. For remote video depositions in Clark County, Administrative Order 22-08 requires the examiner to give every participant electronic copies of any document used and to display it on the video feed while questioning the witness about it.

Pretrial designations, the Short Trial Program and arbitration

Deposition testimony is not sprung on the court at trial. Pretrial designation of deposition testimony and objections to it run through NRCP 16.1(a)(3): designations 30 days before trial, with objections within 14 days. Your attorney's trial-order deadlines may be earlier, and in the Eighth Judicial District Court the discovery scheduling order under EDCR 2.55 sets the time to complete discovery.

Many smaller civil cases never reach a conventional trial. The Court Annexed Arbitration Program is a mandatory, nonbinding program for certain civil cases in judicial districts that include a county with a population of 100,000 or more (NAR 1), and the Short Trial Program is mandatory in the districts subject to it (NSTR 1(b)), with a trial de novo available after arbitration. The Nevada Short Trial Rules apply the Nevada Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure "except as otherwise specified by these rules" (NSTR 1(c)), and NSTR 15 is explicit about depositions: "Each party is permitted to quote directly from relevant depositions and video depositions, interrogatories, requests for admissions, or any other evidence as stipulated to by the parties." NSTR 32(a) adds that "all discovery obtained during the course of the arbitration proceedings shall be admissible in the trial de novo, subject to all applicable rules of civil procedure and evidence."

In the arbitration itself, the current Nevada Arbitration Rules set no numeric deposition limit; under NAR 11 the extent of discovery, if any, is at the arbitrator's discretion, and under NSTR 8 the same discretion belongs to the short trial judge. Neither rule set says who pays for a deposition, so NRCP 30(b)(3)(A), under which the noticing party bears the recording costs, applies by default under NSTR 1(c).

Why the stenographic transcript is what the court reads

Pull the threads together and the transcript sits at the center of every use. NRCP 32(c) requires a transcript of any deposition testimony offered, whatever else is provided. NRCP 32(a)(6) lets the other side demand the surrounding passages, which only a complete transcript can supply. NRCP 32(d)(4) ties the waiver of objections to how the officer transcribed, certified and sealed the deposition. And NRCP 30(f)(1) requires the officer's written certificate that the witness was duly sworn and that the deposition accurately records the testimony, sealed and sent to the attorney who arranged for it.

A certified Nevada transcript also carries the marks the court expects: the reporter's certificate number on the cover page and certificate page (NRS 656.310(4)), the firm's license number and name on the cover page (NAC 656.280(4)), and the format set by NAC 656.360. After certification the record cannot be altered without every party's stipulation or the presiding judge's or arbiter's order (NAC 656.350), so the pages read at trial are the pages certified at the time.

As of this writing the sources are current as follows: the NRCP as amended through October 31, 2025, with Rules 16.1, 26, 28, 30 and 32 last amended effective March 1, 2019; EDCR through 2025-10-31; the Nevada Short Trial Rules and the Nevada Arbitration Rules through 2026-03-12; NRS 656 rev. 2025; NAC 656 page rev. 2026-04-13; Eighth Judicial District Court Administrative Order 22-08 dated 2022-05-09 and, as of October 2026, listed on the court's index with no amending order.

Common questions

Can a deposition be read to the jury if the witness is available to testify?

It depends on who the witness is. A party's deposition, or that of a party's officer, director, managing agent or 30(b)(6) designee, may be used by an adverse party for any purpose under NRCP 32(a)(3). Any deposition may be used to impeach the deponent under NRCP 32(a)(2). For other non-party witnesses, substantive use generally requires one of the NRCP 32(a)(4) unavailability findings. Your attorney decides how to proceed.

What is the 100-mile rule?

Under NRCP 32(a)(4)(B), a party may use the deposition of a witness for any purpose if the court finds the witness is more than 100 miles from the place of hearing or trial, or is out of the state, unless it appears that the witness's absence was procured by the party offering the deposition.

If the deposition was videotaped, do we still need the transcript?

Yes. NRCP 32(c) requires a party to provide a transcript of any deposition testimony it offers, unless the court orders otherwise; the video may be provided as well. In a jury trial, on any party's request, testimony offered for a purpose other than impeachment must be presented in nontranscript form if available, unless the court for good cause orders otherwise.

Who certifies a video deposition in Nevada?

The officer before whom the deposition was taken. NRCP 30(f)(1) requires the officer to certify in writing that the witness was duly sworn and that the deposition accurately records the testimony, and NRCP 30(f)(3) requires the officer to retain a copy of the recording. Nevada issues no license for videographers; NRS 656 reaches only stenographic and voice-writing reporting.

Can we object at trial to testimony nobody objected to at the deposition?

Sometimes. Under NRCP 32(b) and 32(d)(3)(A), objections to competence, relevance or materiality are not waived by silence at the deposition unless the ground might have been corrected at the time. Objections to the form of a question, the oath, the manner of taking or a party's conduct are waived if not timely made during the deposition (NRCP 32(d)(3)(B)).

What if the transcript was prepared or certified incorrectly?

NRCP 32(d)(4) treats an objection to how the officer transcribed, prepared, signed, certified, sealed, endorsed or sent the deposition as waived unless a motion to suppress is made promptly after the error becomes known or could have been known with reasonable diligence. Separately, NAC 656.350 bars the reporter or firm from altering a certified record without every party's stipulation or the presiding judge's or arbiter's order.

Can a deposition from an earlier lawsuit be used?

Under NRCP 32(a)(8), a deposition lawfully taken and, if required, filed in any federal or state court action may be used in a later action involving the same subject matter between the same parties, or their representatives or successors in interest, to the same extent as if taken in the later action, and as Nevada evidence law otherwise allows.

Can depositions be used in a Nevada short trial?

Yes. NSTR 15 permits each party to quote directly from relevant depositions and video depositions, and NSTR 32(a) makes discovery obtained during the arbitration admissible in the trial de novo, subject to the rules of civil procedure and evidence. NSTR 1(c) applies the Nevada Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure in short trials except as the short trial rules specify otherwise.