Section 9.9 Interrogatories to Discover Fact Witnesses

• Library: Sources of Proof (2014 Ed.)

1. (§9.9) Interrogatories to Discover Fact Witnesses

For a complete investigation, counsel should use an interrogatory directed at identifying persons with personal knowledge of the facts of the case. All answers to such an interrogatory should be reviewed before trial and be kept handy during trial. A failure to disclose a trial witness in response to an appropriately phrased interrogatory may be grounds for preclusion of that witness’s testimony. See, e.g., Sample v. Witt, 712 S.W.2d 394 (Mo. App. W.D. 1986) (the witness who would have testified to the defendant’s statement was properly precluded from testifying because of the plaintiff’s failure to disclose his identity in an answer to the defendant’s interrogatory asking for anyone who had heard the defendant say anything about the accident); see also §9.17, infra.

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