At depositions, the typist who documents the proceedings swears the person in. What enables someone to legally swear a person in? I manage people. Can I swear them in when they come into my office to, say, report someone?

I thought anyone swearing someone in had to be an officer of the court:
“The generic term officer of the court applies to all those who, in some degree in function of their professional or similar qualifications, have a legal part—and hence legal and deontological obligations—in the complex functioning of the judicial system as a whole, in order to forge justice out of the application of the law and the simultaneous pursuit of the legitimate interests of all parties and the general good of society.”

I could absolutely be wrong though.

It varies from state to state. Generally, the court reporters are notaries public and/or officers of the court. Most states allow notaries public to administer oaths and affidavits for court proceedings. Oaths of this type really only apply in legal proceedings, so your swearings-in of your employees wouldn’t really have any weight.

So then I have to ask, what defines a legal proceeding?

a judge?

Nope. There’s no judge present at a deposition.

But the deposition is part of the court proceedings associated with a trial and presided over (even remotely) by a judge.

At the time of the deposition, a trial in the future is assumed but not definite. Doesn’t matter?

Nope. The rules for pre-trial activity are set my law. The pre-trial hearings and motions are presided over by a judge.

Legal proceeding means any pretrial, trial, and posttrial stages of existing or reasonably anticipated judicial or administrative actions, hearings, investigations, or similar proceedings before courts, commissions, boards or other tribunals, foreign or domestic. This phrase includes all phases of discovery as well as responses to formal or informal requests by attorneys or others involved in legal proceedings.

That’s found in most federal agency codes.

In Tennessee, the bailiff is always the person who swears a witness in.

I think that’s the way it is in all the “judge” shows. In a deposition, there is no bailiff.

I’ve never heard of anyone except the court reporter swearing someone in at a deposition.

I’ve sat in on many many cases, and no one other than the bailiff has ever done it when I was there.

EDIT: Ohhhh, but those weren’t depositions, they were hearings. I may have not read the question very well…

Yeah, at the actual courtroom proceedings, it varies between the bailiff and reporter by jurisdiction. Depositions are pretty much exclusively reporters, as they are generally the only objective party present.

Does that mean the reporter ascertains there is no “funny business”, i.e., I attended MANY depositions where I took notes. Sometimes I left the room. Would the reporter ascertain that the “bad guys” didn’t go through my notes or is that not her job (I took my notes with me to be safe).

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “funny business.” The purpose of a deposition (as you know) is simply to collect testimony, just as one would testify in a courtroom proceeding. As far as I know, that’s all the court reporter would be concerned with.

Here in Georgia I have seen the attorney and DA swear witnesses in in court.