Discovery Tip: Interrogatories About Requests for Admissions

Requests for admissions should be accompanied by a separate interrogatory that says something like this: "To the extent that any of your responses to any of Defendant's requests for admissions is other than an unqualified admission, list all facts on which you based any part of your response that is not an unqualified admission, identify all documents memorializing each such fact, and identify all persons with knowledge of each such fact."

To my mind, it's this interrogatory that's one of the most useful parts of the request-for-admissions procedure. By changing the interrogatory slightly, you can also use it to discover documents and deponents concerning admissions.

Comments

[Rich]

Do you include the interrogatory in the same document as the request to admit, or does it go in a separate one? Also, does the interrogatory count against your overall interrogatory limit?

RGR

[Evan]

Rich: The interrogatory goes in a separate document, and it would count against the limit, though the limit can be extended with leave of court.

[Bryan]

Great tip! I used it yesterday.

[mythago]

In California, the Judicial Council has propounded Form Interrogatories that are fairly generic, but #17 is identical (or nearly so) to your proposed language.

[oakpalm]

California has a pretty good system in this regard. As pointed out above, it has a form interrogatory 17.1 that asks for all available information if the party denies a request for admission. And, the form interrogatory does not count against the limit. Plus, the limit on interrogatories and requests for admission can be avoided by counsel's sworn statement than more than the limit(35) is necessary. In any type of complex case I've never had a problem with exceeding the limit. Here's an interesting website re California discovery law and requests for admissions http://www.discoveryreferee.com/a6whyarentyou.htm and here's the text of form interrogatory 17.1

17.0 Responses to Request for Admissions

17.1 Is your response to each request for admission served with these interrogatories an unqualified admission? If not, for each response that is not an unqualified admission:

(a) state the number of the request;
(b) state all facts upon which you base your response;
(c) state the names, ADDRESSES, and telephone numbers of all PERSONS who have knowledge of those facts;
(d) identify all DOCUMENTS and other tangible things that support your response and state the name, ADDRESS, and telephone number of the PERSON who has each DOCUMENT or thing.