Interrogatories

What Are Interrogatories?

Interrogatories are a written discovery tool. One party drafts a numbered list of questions and serves it on another party. The receiving party must respond to each question in writing, either with an answer or with a specific objection, and must sign the answers under oath. Unlike a deposition, there is no back-and-forth; the questions are fixed, and the answering party has time to gather records and consult with a lawyer before responding. Unlike a subpoena, interrogatories may be sent only to parties to the lawsuit, not to outside witnesses.

Interrogatories are best at nailing down facts that are within the answering party’s knowledge: identities, dates, amounts, treatment histories, contentions. They are poor at judging credibility, which is why they come first and the deposition comes later. In an injury case both sides serve them. The injured person answers questions about the crash, injuries, and damages; the defendant answers questions about speed, distraction, maintenance, insurance, and prior incidents.

How Do Interrogatories Work In North Carolina?

N.C. R. Civ. P. 33 governs interrogatories in North Carolina state court. Each party may direct no more than 50 interrogatories to any other party, and the rule counts parts and subparts as separate questions, so a lawyer cannot evade the cap by packing five questions into one. Answers are due within 30 days after the interrogatories are served, except that a defendant may take 45 days from service of the summons and complaint. Each interrogatory must be answered separately and fully in writing under oath, unless it is objected to, in which case the reasons for the objection are stated in place of an answer. The answers are signed by the person making them.

The scope of what may be asked is the general discovery scope in N.C. R. Civ. P. 26: anything relevant to the subject matter of the case that is not privileged, whether or not it would be admissible at trial. When the answer to a question can be found in business records and the burden of digging it out is the same for both sides, the answering party may point to the records instead of summarizing them. And because facts change, the rule requires a party to supplement an answer that becomes incomplete or incorrect, for example when a new doctor is seen or a new witness is found.

What Do Interrogatories Look Like In A North Carolina Injury Case?

Take a Charlotte delivery driver hurt when another car ran a red light on Independence Boulevard. Three weeks after her lawyer files suit, the defense serves 38 interrogatories. They ask her to identify every health-care provider she has seen in the last ten years, describe every injury she attributes to the collision, list every prior accident or claim, state her speed and lane in the five seconds before impact, describe any use of a phone or other device that day, identify every witness, itemize every expense and every hour of lost work, and state whether she was wearing a seat belt.

Her lawyer reviews each question, objects to the ten-year medical demand as overbroad and proposes a narrower period, and works through the rest with her, pulling the answers from the crash report, her treatment records, and her pay stubs. She signs under oath, and the answers are served on day 29. Her lawyer serves 44 interrogatories of his own on the defendant asking about speed, phone use, the light sequence, insurance coverage, prior citations, and the defendant’s version of events. Both sets of answers become the outline for the depositions that follow.

• Identity and history: employers, residences, prior claims, prior injuries.
• The incident: speed, position, lighting, devices, what each party saw and did.
• Injuries and treatment: providers, diagnoses, gaps in care, current symptoms.
• Damages: medical bills, lost income, out-of-pocket costs, activities affected.
• Contentions: the facts each side says support its claims and defenses.

Why Do Interrogatory Answers Matter Under North Carolina’s Contributory Negligence Rule?

North Carolina bars recovery entirely when the injured person’s own negligence was a proximate cause of the injury. The defendant must plead and prove that defense under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-139, and interrogatories are the first place the defense goes looking for it. A question such as “Describe every action you took to avoid the collision” or “State whether you were using any electronic device within fifteen minutes before the collision” is not idle curiosity. The sworn written answer will be read aloud at the deposition, compared against phone records the defense subpoenas, and, if the case goes that far, shown to the jury.

An answer that is careless, inconsistent with the records, or volunteers a guess (“I may have been going a little over the limit”) gives the defense a foothold it did not have. An answer that is accurate, complete, and consistent with the crash report and medical records closes that door. The stakes are the same on the defense side: a defendant’s sworn admission that he glanced at a text is exactly the evidence a plaintiff’s lawyer needs to prove negligence and, in some cases, the gross negligence that defeats the contributory negligence defense. For anyone hurt in a North Carolina car accident, the interrogatory answers are the foundation the rest of the case is built on.

How Should You Answer Interrogatories?

Your lawyer handles the drafting, but the facts come from you, and the signature is yours. Gather your records first: the crash report, every provider’s name and address, your pay records, receipts, and a timeline of symptoms. Answer only what is asked, completely and accurately, without speculation. If you do not know an answer, say so; if it is in your records, help your lawyer find it. Do not exaggerate injuries or minimize prior ones; both are found out. Expect your lawyer to object to questions that are overbroad, privileged, or irrelevant, and understand that an objection is not a refusal to cooperate.

• Start the day the interrogatories arrive; 30 days passes quickly when records must be collected.
• Keep a copy of the answers and re-read them before your deposition.
• Tell your lawyer promptly about any new provider, witness, or change in your condition so the answers can be supplemented.
• Never sign answers you have not read in full.