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Rule 33 – Interrogatories to Parties

May 13, 2021 | Civil Procedure, Indiana

(A)Availability-Procedures for use. Any party may serve upon any other party written interrogatories to be answered by the party served or, if the party served is an organization including a governmental organization, or a partnership, by any officer or agent, who shall furnish such information as is available to the party. Interrogatories may, without leave of court, be served upon the plaintiff after commencement of the action and upon any other party with or after service of the summons and complaint upon that party.
(B)Format of interrogatory and response. A party who serves written interrogatories under this rule shall provide, after each interrogatory, a reasonable amount of space for a response or an objection. Answers or objections to interrogatories shall include the interrogatory which is being answered or to which an objection is made. The interrogatory which is being answered or objected to shall be placed immediately preceding the answer or objection.

Each interrogatory shall be answered separately and fully in writing under oath, unless it is objected to, in which event the reasons for objections shall be stated in lieu of an answer. The answers are to be signed by the person making them, and the objections signed by the attorney making them.

(C)Time for service, response, and sanctions. The party upon whom the interrogatories have been served shall serve a copy of the answers and objections within a period designated by the party submitting the interrogatories, not less than thirty (30) days after the service thereof or within such shorter or longer time as the court may allow. The party submitting the interrogatories may move for an order under Rule 37(A) with respect to any objection to or other failure to answer an interrogatory.

The party upon whom the interrogatories have been served may object to the failure to follow the Format requirements in subpart (B) by returning the interrogatories to the party who caused them to be served. If this objection is to be made, the interrogatories shall be returned to the party who caused them to be served not later than the seventh (7th) day after they were received. If the interrogatories are not returned in that time, then this objection is waived.

(D)Scope-Use at trial. Interrogatories may relate to any matters which can be inquired into under Rule 26(B), and the answers may be used to the extent permitted by the rules of evidence.

An interrogatory otherwise proper is not objectionable merely because an answer to the interrogatory involves an opinion, contention, or legal conclusion, but the court may order that such an interrogatory be answered at a later time, or after designated discovery has been completed, or at a pre-trial conference.

(E)Option to produce business records. Where the answer to an interrogatory may be derived or ascertained from the business records of the party upon whom the interrogatory has been served or from an examination, audit or inspection of such business records, including a compilation, abstract or summary thereof, and the burden of deriving or ascertaining the answer is substantially the same for the party serving the interrogatory as for the party served, it is a sufficient answer to such interrogatory to specify the records from which the answer may be derived or ascertained and to afford to the party serving the interrogatory reasonable opportunity to examine, audit or inspect such records and to make copies, compilations, abstracts or summaries. A specification shall be in sufficient detail to permit the interrogating party to locate and to identify, as readily as can the party served, the records from which the answer may be ascertained.

Ind. R. Civ. P. 33