Form and Special Interrogatories Are A Useful Tool for Forcing the Other
Party to Set Forth Their Contentions and the Evidence They Claim Supports
Them In Family Law and Divorce Litigation
There are two types of interrogatories that are useful in family law litigation:
Form and special interrogatories. Special interrogatories are crafted
to pinpoint questions about a party's contentions (i.e., is an asset
alleged to belong to the community or to be separate property?), and are
not objectionable because they seek a legal conclusion. They are also
great for identifying the existence of assets, like bank accounts in the
other person's name or control, and much more and they can be used
to establish perjury later where answers turn out to be false or incomplete.
CALIFORNIA CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE
WRITTEN INTERROGATORIES
Propounding Interrogatories
C.C.P. Section 2030.030
(a) A party may propound to another party either or both of the following:
(1) Thirty-five specially prepared interrogatories that are relevant to
the subject matter of the pending action.
(2) Any additional number of official form interrogatories as described
in Chapter 17 (commencing with Section 2033.710), that are relevant to
the subject matter of the pending action.
(b) Except as provided in Section 2030.070, no party shall, as a matter
of right, propound to any other party more than 35 specially prepared
interrogatories. If the initial set of interrogatories does not exhaust
this limit, the balance may be propounded in subsequent sets.
(c) Unless a declaration as described in Section 2030.050 has been made,
a party need only respond to the first 35 specially prepared interrogatories
served, if that party states an objection to the balance, under Section
2030.240, on the ground that the limit has been exceeded.