39 C.F.R. § 956.17 Discovery—depositions.
Title 39 - Postal Service
(a) The parties are encouraged to engage in voluntary discovery procedures. In connection with any deposition or other discovery procedure, the presiding officer may make any order which justice requires to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense; and those orders may include limitations on the scope, method, time and place for discovery, and provisions for protecting the secrecy of confidential information or documents. (b) After an answer has been filed, the parties may mutually agree to, or the presiding officer may, upon application of either party and for good cause shown, order the taking of the testimony of any person by deposition upon oral examination or written interrogatories before any officer authorized to administer oaths at the place of examination, for use as evidence or for purposes of discovery. The application for order shall specify whether the purpose of the deposition is discovery or for use as evidence. (c) The time, place, and manner of taking depositions shall be mutually agreed by the parties or, failing such agreement, governed by order of the presiding officer. (d) No testimony taken by depositions shall be considered as part of the evidence in a hearing unless and until such testimony is offered and received in evidence at such hearing. It will not ordinarily be received in evidence if the deponent is present and can testify personally at the hearing. In such instances, however, the deposition may be used to contradict or impeach the testimony of the witness given at the hearing. In cases submitted on the record, the presiding officer may, in his discretion, receive depositions as evidence in supplementation of that record. (e) Each party shall bear its own expenses associated with the taking of any deposition.
Title 39: Postal Service
PART 956—RULES OF PRACTICE IN PROCEEDINGS RELATIVE TO DISCIPLINARY ACTION FOR VIOLATION OF RESTRICTIONS ON POST-EMPLOYMENT ACTIVITY
§ 956.17 Discovery—depositions.
