procedural guides

Response to Interrogatories, United States District Court–At A Glance

Use this At A Glance Guide to learn the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure related to responding to interrogatories in the United States District Courts. For more detailed information, including local rules, on responding to interrogatories in a specific United States District Court, please see the SmartRules Response to Interrogatory Guide for the court where your action is pending.

Timing:

If personally served, responses to interrogatories are due within thirty (30) days of service. If the interrogatories are served by mail, or if served by any other means to which the parties have agreed in writing, responses are due within thirty-three (33) days of service. FRCP 33(b)(2); FRCP 6(d).

The time to respond may be shortened or extended as directed by the court, or agreed to in writing by the parties. FRCP 33(b)(2).

Parties may agree to extend or shorten discovery deadlines, except that where an extension would interfere with any time set for completion of discovery, hearing of a motion, or trial, the agreement for extension may be made only with approval of the court. FRCP 29.

The court must set a discovery cut-off date. FRCP 16(b)(3)(A).

Response to Interrogatory Rules:

The interrogatories must be answered:

(A) by the party to whom they are directed; or

(B) if that party is a public or private corporation, a partnership, an association, or a governmental agency, by any officer or agent, who must furnish the information available to the party. FRCP 33(b)(1).

Each interrogatory must, to the extent it is not objected to, be answered separately and fully in writing under oath. FRCP 33(b)(3)(eff 12/01/07).

The grounds for objecting to an interrogatory must be stated with specificity. Any ground not stated in a timely objection is waived unless the court, for good cause, excuses the failure. FRCP 33(b)(4).

Common objections include relevancy (the interrogatory seeks information that is outside the scope of permissible discovery), privilege (the interrogatory seeks information that is protected by the attorney-client, work product or other privilege), privacy, (the interrogatory seeks information that is protected by an individual’s right of privacy), and that the interrogatory is unduly burdensome and oppressive (the cost and time necessary to interrogatory make response unfairly burdensome).

An interrogatory may relate to any matter that may be inquired into under Rule 26(b). An interrogatory is not objectionable merely because it asks for an opinion or contention that relates to fact or the application of law to fact, but the court may order that the interrogatory need not be answered until designated discovery is complete, or until a pretrial conference or some other time. FRCP 33(a)(2).

Absent stipulation or court order, a party may serve no more than twenty-five (25) interrogatories (including subparts) on any other party. FRCP 33(a)(1).

If the answer to an interrogatory may be determined by examining, auditing, compiling, abstracting, or summarizing a party’s business records (including electronically stored information), and if the burden of deriving or ascertaining the answer will be substantially the same for either party, the responding party may answer by:

(1) specifying the records that must be reviewed, in sufficient detail to enable the interrogating party to locate and identify them as readily as the responding party could; and

(2) giving the interrogating party a reasonable opportunity to examine and audit the records and to make copies, compilations, abstracts, or summaries. FRCP 33(d).

The authorities cited in this At A Glance Guide are current as of the publication date. For authorities updated in real time, please see the SmartRules Guide for the litigation document you are drafting.