More On Interrogatories

What I am about to give you is not to be construed as legal advice. In fact, quite the opposite is true, it is really business advice and must be interpreted as that – a non-legal opinion of how to handle an onerous legal situation that can affect your business. Right or wrong, this is my opinion.

Interrogatories serve a viable purpose in both resolving disputes as well as defining the issues. They are a reasonable and important part of both preparing for a lawsuit as well as possibly settling the lawsuit as once all the facts are known by both parties they can better assess the disputed situation. Should they litigate or should they settle? Often what is learned in the interrogatories defines the turning point.

Let me be clear – an interrogatory is a court supported demand for documents to be delivered to the opposing party by a date certain. You are obligated to comply with the request, it is not optional. However, there are times when attorneys take advantage of this and demand far more than what is needed for their discovery and frankly, this opportunity is frequently abused. It can be for the purpose of intimidating the party, making demands so unreasonable that they would be impossible to satisfy. Other times it may be what is referred to as a “fishing expedition” a search for so much information, hoping to find something to litigate over beyond the subject of the immediate suit. The demand for documents can be so broad as to be irrelevant to the case at hand.

When this occurs, you needn’t fulfill the demand, a simple response is “not available”, “do not have”, “not relevant”, “not supported by the fact of the claim”, “unnecessary”, etc. All are reasonable answers. If the opposing attorney really wants the information and can convince the judge that it is relevant then the judge may order you to produce, however, if it really is a fishing expedition or really is too broad or old, feel free to disregard with an appropriate answer and let the other attorney deal with it as he chooses. You will have a chance to explain your answer.

If you do not have the documents, then you cannot create them. If you do, then you need to hand them over. Frequently the demands are so onerous the recipient must completely interrupt his office and his flow of business and allocate a huge amount of time finding and/or putting together such information. There is a limit and the limit must be weighed against the attorney’s right to investigate. However, there is a limit and that is the point. You can say “enough”. You can push back.