Interrogatory Answers "Subject To" Objections: Send a Request for Admission

It's common that a party will answer your interrogatories only after stating numerous objections. If your practice is like mine, you might get a page or two of "general objections," then a number of other specific objections in answer to the specific interrogatory, and then a statement, "Subject to the objection, [party] states as follows. . . "

Absent a specific court rule in your jurisdiction, how do all the objections affect your use of the "subject to" response at trial? Can you read the interrogatory answer to the jury, for example, even though you never had the other side's objections specifically overruled? The party answering the interrogatory didn't state all those objections for nothing. It did so to make it harder for you to use the information.

Here's a simple trick that often will resolve the quandary in a way that's much easier than calling up the objections. Simply take the interrogatory response you think you might want to use at trial (absent the objections, of course) and turn it into a request for admission. Then send it off to the other side. Since they authored the statement themselves in an interrogatory response, albeit subject to their many objections, it's unlikely they'll deny the statement when put into a request for admission.

With an admission in hand, you can use the information at trial without worrying about the effect of the objections. The admission can even be projected on a screen, which you probably wouldn't want to do with an objection-ridden response to interrogatories.

Congratulations: you've just done an end run around your opponent's many harassing objections!

Comments

[Minnesota Attorney]

I hadn't considered that Requests for Admissions can be a tool for preparing court exhibits. This is a great tip!