26.06 Effect of taking deposition or questioning deponent

When you take someone's deposition or ask them questions during one, you don't automatically make that testimony usable as evidence in court. If the testimony would normally be blocked for some legal reason, like being hearsay or irrelevant, taking the deposition doesn't fix that problem. The deposition itself doesn't change whether the evidence is allowed.

This also means that if you ask questions during a deposition, you don't give up your right to object to that testimony later. You can still argue in court that certain answers shouldn't be allowed in, even though you were the one asking the questions during the deposition. Taking part in the deposition process doesn't count as agreeing that everything said in it can be used at trial.

In short, depositions are a tool for gathering information and testimony before trial. But whether that testimony can actually be used as evidence later is a separate question, decided under the normal rules of evidence. Nothing about the deposition process itself settles that question ahead of time.