In the first rule of its kind in the state, the Commercial Division of the New York state court system has adopted a rule that allows parties to consent to video-conferenced remote depositions or, if consent can’t be reached, for either party to show good cause to the judge why remote depositions should be ordered.

One of the effects of Commercial Division Rule 37: Remote Depositions, according to commercial litigators, is that it will encourage what has already been happening in individual cases since the pandemic took grip: that parties to cases, whether in Commercial Division civil suits or in other civil actions, have been holding depositions via video platforms.