Short answer. The officer takes the witness's testimony in person, in response to the interrogatories delivered by the requesting party, then must certify, prepare, and file or mail the deposition — attaching the notice and interrogatories — following the same procedure used for oral depositions under Sections 17, 19, and 20.

What the law says

A copy of the notice and copies of all interrogatories served shall be delivered by the party taking the deposition to the officer designated in the notice, who shall proceed promptly, in the manner provided by [S]ections 17, 19 and 20 of this Rule, to take the testimony of the witness in response to the interrogatories and to prepare, certify, and file or mail the deposition, attaching thereto the copy of the notice and the interrogatories received by him or her.

Rule 23, Section 26 — Officers to take responses and prepare record. Read the full provision →

The delivery step

The party who noticed the deposition must deliver a copy of the notice and copies of all the interrogatories served to the officer named in the notice. That delivery is what actually sets the officer's work in motion — the officer has no independent authority to act on interrogatories that were served on the parties but never actually delivered, giving the officer everything needed to conduct the examination without further instruction from the noticing party. This delivery requirement applies regardless of how many rounds of interrogatories have already been exchanged between the parties in the case.

The officer still takes live testimony

Even though the questions were drafted in advance by the requesting party, the officer's job is not simply to mail out a questionnaire and wait for written responses to come back. The officer proceeds promptly to take the witness's actual testimony in response to the interrogatories, in person, following the same recording, review-and-signing, and certification-and-filing steps that apply to an ordinary oral deposition under Sections 17, 19, and 20 of this Rule. The witness is still examined directly by the officer, just using questions that were already fixed in writing beforehand rather than asked spontaneously.

What must be attached to the finished deposition

The officer must attach the notice and the interrogatories actually received to the completed, certified deposition before filing or mailing it, preserving a clear paper trail of exactly what questions were asked and in what order they were put to the witness. That attachment requirement matters because it lets the court and the parties later confirm that the testimony taken actually corresponds to the interrogatories that were served, rather than to some other or expanded set of questions. Without that attached paper trail, a later challenge to whether a particular answer actually responded to a particular interrogatory would be much harder for the court to resolve.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.