AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 18, 2026

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AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 11, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 2, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

95

Introduced by Assembly Member Lackey

February 19, 2026

An act to amend Section 2025.550 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to civil actions.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: no   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

The Civil Discovery Act authorizes a party to obtain discovery by taking the oral deposition of any person. Oral depositions must be conducted under the supervision of a deposition officer, as specified, and, unless otherwise agreed or ordered, the testimony must be taken stenographically and then transcribed. The act provides procedures for the deponent to read, correct, approve, and sign the original deposition transcript and requires the deposition officer to certify and promptly transmit the transcript to the attorney of the party who noticed the deposition in a securely sealed envelope or package.

This bill would permit the deposition officer or entity retained to perform deposition reporting or transcription services to instead securely encrypt and transmit a certified deposition transcript to the attorney of the party who noticed the deposition via electronic means, when requested by that attorney. The bill would require an electronically transmitted transcript to be in a format that ensures it is authentic and has not been altered. The bill would require authorize the court to accept a transcript that has been formatted, stored, and transmitted in compliance with these provisions as an original certified transcript where the attorney presenting it certifies that it is a true and correct copy of the transcript that they received electronically.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 2025.550 of the Code of Civil Procedure is amended to read:

2025.550.

(a) (1) The certified transcript of a deposition shall not be filed with the court. Instead, the deposition officer or, if the noticing attorney or noticing party has retained an entity registered pursuant to Section 8051 of the Business and Professions Code, the registered entity, shall securely seal that transcript in an envelope or package endorsed with the title of the action and marked: “Deposition of (here insert name of deponent),” and shall promptly transmit it to the attorney for the party or party who noticed the deposition.

(2) Upon request of the attorney for the party who noticed the deposition, the deposition officer or registered entity may instead transmit the certified transcript electronically to the attorneys who noticed the deposition, subject to all of the following:

(A) The deposition officer or registered entity shall notify the other parties that the certified transcript will be transmitted electronically.

(B) The deposition officer or registered entity shall transmit the transcript to the attorney using end-to-end encryption or an application that provides, at a minimum, encryption of the file while at rest and in transit.

(C) The electronic transcript shall be in a format that prevents the transcript or any aspect of the file from being modified and that enables the parties and the court to verify that the transcript is authentic and has not been altered after it was certified by the deposition officer.

(D) The attorney or party shall store the transcript under conditions that will protect it against loss, destruction, or tampering.

(E) When presenting an electronically stored transcript to a court for any purpose, the attorney shall certify that the transcript is a true and correct copy of the transcript received electronically and stored pursuant to this subdivision.

(3) A court shall may accept a transcript transmitted, formatted, stored, and certified pursuant to this subdivision as an original certified transcript kept under seal.

(b) The attorney to whom the transcript of a deposition is transmitted shall retain custody of it until six months after final disposition of the action. At that time, the transcript may be destroyed, unless the court, on motion of any party and for good cause shown, orders that the transcript be preserved for a longer period.