interrogatory

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In civil procedure, an interrogatory is a list of written questions one party sends to another as part of the discovery process. The recipient must answer in writing under oath and according to the case's schedule. Because attorneys may help their clients answer interrogatories, interrogatory responses tend to be more finely crafted than answers to deposition questions. Usually, lawyers use interrogatories to obtain detailed information about persons, corporations, facts, witnesses, and identity and locations of records and documents.  

Court rules usually limit the number of questions included in an interrogatory. For example, under Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, each party may only ask the other party 25 interrogatory questions, unless the court permits them to ask more. The parties may also agree on the number of questions on their interrogatories subject to the court’s approval. 

Interrogatories are limited to the parties in a certain case. Thus, nonparties are not obligated to respond to interrogatories. Parties should use other discovery devices at their disposal to get information from nonparties, like depositions. 

At the state level, each state court has its own interrogatory rules. However, most of them follow the essential elements stated in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, mainly varying in the number of questions and the scope of information that can be requested. See also: State Civil Procedure Rules

[Last updated in April of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]