republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/sb-645.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	Civil discovery: depositions.	Existing law authorizes any party to obtain discovery in civil actions by taking the oral deposition of any person, including any party to the action. Under existing law, a deposition examination of the witness by all counsel, other than the witness' counsel of record, is generally limited to 7 hours of total testimony. Existing law provides an exception to the 7-hour limitation for depositions taken in cases designated as complex. In such cases, the deposition examination of a witness by all counsel other than the witness' counsel of record is limited to 2 days of no more than 7 hours of total testimony each day, or 14 hours of total testimony, unless a licensed physician attests that the deponent suffers from an illness or condition that raises substantial medical doubt of the deponent's survival beyond 6 months.	us/states/ca	California Legislature	20192020	SB 645	California SB 645 (20192020)	bill	Civil discovery: depositions.	enacted	Monning	5	20	5	2019-02-22	2019-08-30	openstates	ocd-bill/6ed73761-a72b-40a4-9bbe-c3974457e1a3	http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB645	a826ce1fabf9187f245a3c668bddcf855d8631a6a338b7f07a6752c08f182667	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-ca

California SB 645 (20192020) — Civil discovery: depositions.

Existing law authorizes any party to obtain discovery in civil actions by taking the oral deposition of any person, including any party to the action. Under existing law, a deposition examination of the witness by all counsel, other than the witness' counsel of record, is generally limited to 7 hours of total testimony. Existing law provides an exception to the 7-hour limitation for depositions taken in cases designated as complex. In such cases, the deposition examination of a witness by all counsel other than the witness' counsel of record is limited to 2 days of no more than 7 hours of total testimony each day, or 14 hours of total testimony, unless a licensed physician attests that the deponent suffers from an illness or condition that raises substantial medical doubt of the deponent's survival beyond 6 months.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. 02/22/19 - Introduced (filed) — source
2. 07/05/19 - Amended Assembly (committee substitute) — source
3. 08/30/19 - Chaptered (committee substitute) — source
4. SB645 (committee substitute) — source
5. 08/16/19 - Enrolled (enrolled) — source

Votes

• 3rd Reading — 31–4 (pass) · upper
• Unfinished Business SB645 Monning Concurrence — 37–0 (pass) · upper
• Do pass. — 9–0 (pass) · lower
• SB 645 Monning Senate Third Reading By Mark Stone — 65–0 (pass) · lower
• Do pass — 7–0 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Monning — primary (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2019-02-22 Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. introduction
• 2019-02-25 From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 27.
• 2019-02-25 Read first time. reading-1
• 2019-03-14 Referred to Com. on JUD. referral-committee
• 2019-03-19 Set for hearing April 2.
• 2019-04-03 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 553.) (April 2). committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage
• 2019-04-04 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
• 2019-04-08 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 31. Noes 4. Page 592.) Ordered to the Assembly. passage, reading-3, reading-1
• 2019-04-08 In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. reading-1
• 2019-05-02 Referred to Com. on JUD. referral-committee
• 2019-06-04 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 4). committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage
• 2019-06-05 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
• 2019-07-05 Read third time and amended. amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1
• 2019-07-05 Ordered to third reading.
• 2019-08-12 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 65. Noes 0. Page 2666.) Ordered to the Senate. passage, reading-3, reading-1
• 2019-08-12 In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
• 2019-08-15 Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 2179.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2019-08-23 Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
• 2019-08-30 Approved by the Governor. executive-signature
• 2019-08-30 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 212, Statutes of 2019.

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/6ed73761-a72b-40a4-9bbe-c3974457e1a3. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).