Rule 1.716 Costs of taking deposition

If you want to take someone's deposition, you have to pay for it yourself first. You can't actually use that deposition as evidence in court until you've paid those costs.

At the end of the case, the judge decides who pays for the deposition as part of the overall court costs. But the losing party only has to pay back the part of the deposition costs that covered testimony actually used at trial. So if you took a long deposition but only a small part of it ended up being used as evidence, you can't stick the other side with the whole bill. They only pay for the portion that was actually helpful and admitted during the trial.