What Are Interrogatories in a Personal Injury Case?

There are many steps to building a personal injury case. There’s a great deal of work to do before your case even arrives at trial. Before the case goes to trial, both sides have the opportunity to build the evidence in the case.

There are a lot of ways to build evidence in a case. One way to gather evidence in a Nevada personal injury case is by sending interrogatories to the other party. Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys can help ensure you prepare interrogatories in a way that benefits your case. Learn more about the details of interrogatories here.

What Are Interrogatories in a Nevada Personal Injury Case?

Interrogatories in a personal injury case are written questions that one party can send to another party in the case. The party that receives the questions has 30 days to submit their answers back to the other side. The party who answers interrogatories must answer the questions under oath.

Interrogatories are a way to narrow the issues of disagreement, gather information, and build evidence in an injury case. Rule 33 of the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure gives most of the rules for sending and answering interrogatories.

What Are Some Common Interrogatories to Ask in a Nevada Personal Injury Case?

Most people use interrogatories to formally narrow contested issues and prepare for a deposition. For example, you might use interrogatories to request an agreement on basic information like the location of the accident or the color of the vehicles involved. You may use interrogatories to identify witnesses like the identity of others in a vehicle. Some of the questions you might ask using interrogatories include:

• State your insurance information including company, policy number, address, and phone number
• Describe the color of the light at the time of the accident (red, green, etc.)
• State your activities for the day of the accident including your intended destination at the time of the accident
• What repairs did you have done on your vehicle after the accident?
• For anyone you have talked to about the accident, state their name, address and phone number
• List and describe all times you have been arrested and criminal convictions
• List and describe medications that you were taking at the time of the accident
• List and explain any time that your driver’s license has been suspended or expired

These are just some of the interrogatories that you may send in a personal injury case. Your injury lawyer can help you decide what questions to ask in your case.

How Many Interrogatories Can I Send in a Personal Injury Case?

You can send up to 40 interrogatories in a personal injury case. If you want to send more, you can get permission from the court. You can also ask more interrogatories if the other party agrees.

When Can I Send Interrogatories in My Case?

You can begin interrogatories in your case any time after the joint case conference report. If there’s no joint case conference report, you may start interrogatories ten days after a separate conference report. If a different time is more appropriate, you can ask the court to order a different time frame.

Which Party Can Send Interrogatories?

Either party in a personal injury case can send interrogatories. If you’re the plaintiff, you may send them to the defendant. The defendant can also send them to you. The same rules for asking and answering interrogatories apply to both sides of the injury case.

How Long Do I Have to Reply to Interrogatories in a Nevada Personal Injury Case?

You have 30 days to reply to interrogatories once you receive them. You must provide answers or objections. You can agree with the other party for a different time frame or ask the court to adjust the time frame if you need more time for a good reason.

How Do I Reply to Interrogatories?

You reply to interrogatories by stating each question and then directly answering the question beneath it. You must sign the answers to interrogatories. You don’t send the answers directly to the court. Instead, you send the answers directly to the other party.

What If I Object to Some of the Interrogatories?

There are some circumstances where you don’t have to answer an interrogatory question. For example, the question may be completely irrelevant to the case. The question may be unduly burdensome to answer, protected by a privilege, or the other side may have asked the question just to harass you.

If you believe that you have a valid objection, you state the question and then state your objection. It’s not enough to just say “objection.” Instead, you have to declare the specific grounds for the objection. If the other side disagrees with your objection, they can ask the court to order you to answer the question. An experienced attorney can help protect you against harassment and discovery abuse.

What Happens If the Answer Changes?

It’s possible that your answers to interrogatories may change over time. The other side’s answers may change too. If you’ve already answered interrogatories and your answers change, you need to update your answers without waiting for the other side to ask for an update.

Are Answers to Interrogatories Admissible at Trial?

The Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure state that answers to interrogatories are admissible if they’re otherwise admissible under the rules of evidence. Usually, that means an interrogatory answer from another party is admissible in some way unless the answer contains hearsay or is excluded by another rule. Your attorney can help you use interrogatories effectively at trial.

How Our Experienced Personal Injury Attorneys in Las Vegas Can Help

Are you involved in a personal injury case? Do you have questions about interrogatories? Our experienced accident attorneys in Las Vegas can help. When they’re used effectively, interrogatories are critical to building your claim.

We have years of experience helping thousands of clients build their claims effectively using interrogatories and other discovery methods. We can help you fight against discovery abuse tactics from the other side that can leave you feeling harassed as you seek justice in your case. Contact us today to begin working on your claim.