Interrogatories are written questions served by one party on another after a civil action begins. In a car-accident lawsuit, they may address drivers, vehicles, witnesses, event accounts, insurance, injuries, treatment, prior conditions, later events, work effects, claimed losses, defenses, experts, documents, and electronically stored information. The exact requests, court orders, and facts control what must be answered.

An interrogatory answer is a sworn discovery response from a party, not an informal questionnaire, a substitute for producing records, or permission to guess when the available information is incomplete.

Identify the request, service, and response period

North Carolina Rule of Civil Procedure 33 permits interrogatories to parties, limits a party to 50 interrogatories directed to another party absent court leave or agreement, and counts parts and subparts separately. The rule generally provides 30 days for answers or objections, while a defendant generally receives 45 days after service of the summons and complaint; a court may allow a shorter or longer period. Record the service method, applicable computation, order, extension, and actual due date rather than copying a generic calendar entry.

Build a response worksheet from source records

  • Request number, complete text, definitions, instructions, scope, date range, and each embedded part or subpart
  • Person responsible for the answer, people consulted, records and systems checked, search period, and unresolved gap
  • Draft factual response, source citation, qualification, correction needed in another record, and any genuine inability to answer
  • Objection and reason, information withheld, privilege or protection issue, proposed limitation, and whether a partial answer can be given
  • Verification, signature, service, later supplementation, related document production, and court-order status

Answer separately, fully, and under oath

Rule 33 requires each interrogatory to be answered separately and fully in writing under oath unless an objection is stated with its reason. The person making the answers signs them; the attorney signs objections. A careful response distinguishes personal knowledge, information obtained from records or other people, estimates, and facts that remain unknown after reasonable inquiry. It should not convert a disputed allegation, police-report code, medical assumption, or insurer position into an admitted fact.

Use the discovery scope and limits

Rule 26 addresses discovery methods, scope, limits, electronically stored information, insurance agreements, trial-preparation material, experts, privilege claims, protective orders, sequence, supplementation, discovery planning, and signing. A response review should consider relevance, privilege, protection, burden, duplication, accessibility, confidentiality, and any case-specific order rather than treating every question as unlimited.

Handle business-record references precisely

Rule 33 permits a response based on specified business records when the answer can be derived from them and the burden of deriving the answer is substantially the same for both sides. The response must identify the records in enough detail to let the requesting party locate the answer as readily as the responding party. A broad statement such as “see medical records” can hide missing dates, providers, pages, calculations, or contradictory entries and should not replace a record-specific review.

Separate contention questions from unsupported conclusions

An interrogatory may ask for a fact contention or the application of law to fact. Build the answer from the pleaded issue, known source facts, witnesses, documents, and present theory. State qualifications and unresolved predicates. Do not provide a medical diagnosis, engineering conclusion, legal conclusion, or damages calculation without the appropriate factual and professional basis.

Address incomplete responses through the governing process

Rule 37 addresses motions to compel and treats an evasive or incomplete answer as a failure to answer for that procedure. It also requires the moving party to certify a good-faith conference or attempt to confer for a motion described by the rule. A disagreement should identify the exact request, answer, objection, missing information, conference history, proposed resolution, and requested relief rather than assume a sanction or outcome.

Verify and update the final response set

Before service, compare names, dates, providers, employers, vehicles, policies, injuries, losses, witnesses, expert information, and prior statements across the complaint, crash report, medical file, insurance file, records production, and draft answers. Preserve the signed verification and served version. Calendar supplementation or correction when Rule 26, an agreement, a new request, or a court order requires it.

The related car-accident evidence matrix guide explains how to connect each asserted fact to its source, foundation, contradiction, and remaining gap before it appears in a sworn response.

Rosensteel Fleishman Car Accident & Injury Lawyers provides information about Charlotte car-accident representation involving written discovery. Interrogatory obligations depend on the pending action, served requests, current record, applicable rules, agreements, and court orders.

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