Section 3.15 Service, Form, and Number of Interrogatories

• Library: Discovery 2015

Interrogatories may be served on a plaintiff at any time following commencement of the action and on any other party either with or after the party was served with process, entered an appearance, or filed a pleading. Rule 57.01(b)(2). Rule 57.01(b)(3) requires that copies of interrogatories must be served on all parties in the action who are not in default, whether or not every party is required to answer them. It has been indicated that a party may not, by serving interrogatories less than 30 days before trial, shorten the time within which to respond under Rule 57.01. Rogers v. King, 684 S.W.2d 390, 392 (Mo. App. W.D. 1984) (the rule then allowed 20 days to respond).

Rule 57.01(b)(3) provides that the party issuing the interrogatories must “provide each answering party an electronic copy, in a commonly used medium such as a diskette, CD-ROM or as an e-mail attachment, in a format that can be read by most commonly used word processing programs.” The party serving the interrogatories must file a certificate of service stating:

• the name of each party who is to answer;

• the number of the set of interrogatories; and

• the format of the electronic copy and the medium used to send the...