Cost of Taking a Deposition Is a Taxable In Arizona

In Arizona the cost of taking a deposition is a taxable cost if it was taken in good faith, even though the deposition is not used."); White v. Frye, 27 Ariz. 447, 451, 234 P. 34, 35 (1925) (interpreting predecessor statute and holding that failure to use a deposition does not "affect the right to costs, unless it appears it was not taken in good faith"); State ex rel. Corbin v. Ariz. Corp. Comm'n, 143 Ariz. 219, 229, 693 P.2d 362, 372 (App. 1984) ("The fact that the depositions were ultimately not used is not dispositive."). By logical extension, a party that seeks to recover the cost of video-recording a deposition need not establish that the recording was actually used in later proceedings. But when a party opts for both a transcript and a video and later seeks to make an opponent financially liable for that election via a request for taxable costs, the necessity and reasonableness of both modes of preservation is a question for the trial court to resolve. In that context, actual use may be a relevant consideration. Other pertinent factors include whether the opposing party objected to both methods of memorializing the deposition, whether the objecting party also purchased both a transcript and video recording, the need for both for appellate purposes, and any witness-specific issues that made dual modes of preservation prudent.