Interrogatories are the legal method for dealing with conflicting accounts of the same event. The answers to the inquiries serve as a guide to those that must determine which of 2 or more stories to believe.
When are interrogatories used?
Personal Injury Lawyers in Red Deer use them during the discovery process. The answers provided serve as a way to increase the amount of material that is shared by the 2 opposing sides.
Principle features of interrogatories
Each of them consists of a list of questions. The lawyer representing one party sends those questions to the opposing party. The person that receives the questions has a limited amount of time in which to answer them. A willful effort to provide the opposing party with an incorrect answer counts as performance of perjury. The withholding of known information is also illegal, it the withheld information has been requested.
What sorts of questions get asked?
Plaintiffs get questions about the damages that have been reported in their claim. That would include inquiries about their injury, and about how it was treated. If the plaintiff had reported loss of income, then some of the inquiries might deal with the source of that income, the plaintiff’s job.
Defendants get questions about their past actions. Both defendants and plaintiffs have to provide contact information, such as their address and phone number. Lawyers use their experience as a guide, when choosing what question should go on a given list. Still, every personal injury case is different. Consequently, a defense attorney might not understand fully the facts that are associated with a plaintiff’s injury, or with some aspect of a plaintiff’s medical history. That is why it is illegal to withhold information if the withheld information has been requested.
It is possible that some piece of information might not relate to any of the presented questions. If that were the case, it is not clear how the plaintiff or defendant would be expected to supply the lawyers with such information. Does the legal system provide a means for the introduction of facts that have not been sought?
The information on interrogatories does not provide a clear answer to that question. It seems strange to place so much emphasis on honest answers, when there is a chance that a full list of answers could be lacking in some noteworthy facts. Still, that is the process that has been adopted by our legal system. Potential clients have a chance to learn more about that process, when consulting with a personal injury lawyer. That is a time when it becomes the lawyer’s turn to answer various inquiries. Their future clients must assume that no answer seeks to hide the truth.