Bindinglaw

NJ · rules

N.J. Ct. R. 7:7-6

​​​​​​​Depositions

activein force · 2013-01-01 – presentact-effective-date

(a) When Authorized. If it appears to the judge of the court in which a complaint is pending that a witness is likely to be unable to testify at trial because of impending death or physical or mental incapacity, the court, upon motion and notice to the parties, and after a showing that such action is necessary to prevent manifest injustice, may order that a deposition of the testimony of that witness be taken and that any designated books, papers, documents or tangible objects that are not privileged, including, but not limited to, writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, sound recordings, images, electronically stored information, and any other data or data compilations stored in any medium from which information can be obtained and translated, if necessary, into reasonably usable form, be produced at the same time and place.

(b) Procedure. The deposition shall be videotaped, unless the court otherwise orders. The deposition shall be taken before the judge at a location convenient to all parties. If the judge is unable to preside because the deposition is to be taken outside of the State, the deposition shall be taken before a person designated by the judge. All parties and counsel shall have a right to be present at the deposition. Examination, cross-examination, and determination of admissibility of evidence shall proceed in the same manner as at trial. Videotaping shall be done by a person chosen by the judge who is independent of both prosecution and defense.

(c) Use. Depositions taken pursuant to paragraph (a) of this rule may be used at trial instead of the testimony of the witness if the witness is unable to testify in court because of impending death or physical or mental incapacity, or if the judge finds that the party offering the deposition has been unable to procure the attendance of the witness by subpoena or otherwise, the deposition shall be admissible pursuant to the Rules of Evidence applied as though the witness were then present and testifying. The deposition shall not be admissible, however, unless the court finds that the circumstances surrounding its taking allowed adequate preparation and cross-examination by all parties. A record of the videotaped testimony, which shall be part of the official record of the court proceedings, shall be made in the same manner as if the witness were present and testifying. On conclusion of the trial, the videotape shall be retained by the court.

History

Note: Source-R. (1969) 7:4-2(h), 3:13-2(a),(b),(c). Adopted October 6, 1997 to be effective February 1, 1998; paragraph (a) amended December 4, 2012 to be effective January 1, 2013.

Provenance

Source
njcourts.gov
Retrieved
2026-09-15
Edition
2026-09-14
Content hash
33b40817eff6bc0836799b85ec08c56905c186c305fda299ad2c0494be967db0
View the official source →

The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.

Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.

Coverage · API docs

Bindinglaw

Point-in-time US law with the receipt attached. Source URL, retrieval time, content hash, and validity dates on every answer.

curl api.binding.law/v1/law/coverage

© 2026 binding.law · a Jubal, Inc. productAttorneys and firms never pay. Ever.
N.J. Ct. R. 7:7-6 — ​​​​​​​Depositions · binding.law