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Durational Limits on Depositions

Thomas E. Willging
December 22, 1997

Memorandum to the Judicial Conference Subcommittee on Discovery of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules assisting review of a proposal to limit the length of depositions. Findings were based on data gathered from counsel surveyed on duration of depositions in 1,000 closed civil cases.

 Table 1: Frequency and length (hours) of reported depositions

 Table 2: Frequency of reported depositions by attorney reports that there were “too many depositions"

 Table 3: Reported length of longest deposition by attorney reports that there were “too much time was taken in some or all depositions”