Interrogatories are lists of questions sent to the other party that s/he must respond to in writing. You can use interrogatories to find out facts about a case but they cannot be used for questions that draw a legal conclusion.
Interrogatories may, without leave of court, be served upon the plaintiff after filing of the complaint and upon any other party with or after service of the summons and complaint upon that party.
However, you can object to interrogatories that call for legal conclusions. You can also object to questions if they are not at all related to the court case. To object, you need to write out the reasons for the objection instead of answering the question.
Ask for a court order If the other person does not respond, or their response is still incomplete, you can ask the court to order them to respond. You have 45 days from the service of the most recent responses to ask the court to make an order requiring an answer.
Common objections include: The request is impermissibly compound. The request is vague, ambiguous or unintelligible. The request is not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of relevant, admissible evidence. Introduction to Discovery – Part 5: Responding to Form Interrogatories.
The original special interrogatories and signed proof of service should be retained for your records. If the other party does not respond to your requests, you may use these documents to support a motion to have the court compel responses.
An interrogatory is improper if it asks for pure speculation based on hypothetical facts without foundation or requests an answer to a question based on a wrong assumption.
(2) Time to Respond. The responding party must serve its answers and any objections within 30 days after being served with the interrogatories. A shorter or longer time may be stipulated to under Rule 29 or be ordered by the court.
How much time does the responding party have to answer interrogatories? The responding party generally has 30 days to answer interrogatories from the date of service. Talk to a lawyer if you are not sure about the deadline.