Rule 33.  Interrogatories to Par­ties

(a) In General.

(1) Number. Unless otherwise stipulated or ordered by the court, a par­ty may serve on any other party no more than 25 writ­ten in­ter­rog­a­to­ries, including all discrete subparts. Leave to serve additional in­ter­rog­a­to­ries may be granted to the extent con­sistent with Rule 26 (b) (2).

(2) Scope. An interrogatory may relate to any matter that may be in­quired into under Rule 26(b). An interrogatory is not ob­jec­tionable mere­ly because it asks for an opinion or contention that relates to fact or the application of law to fact, but the court may order that the in­terrogatory need not be answered until des­ig­nated discovery is complete, or until a pretrial con­fer­ence or some other time.

(b) Answers and Objections.

(1) Responding Party. The interrogatories must be an­swer­ed:

(A) by the party to whom they are directed; or

(B) if that party is a public or private corporation, a part­ner­ship, an as­so­ci­ation, or a governmental agency, by any of­ficer or agent, who must furnish the information available to the party.

(2) Time to Respond. The responding party must serve its an­swers and any objections within 30 days after being served with the in­ter­rog­a­to­ries. A shorter or longer time may be stip­u­lated to under Rule 29 or be ordered by the court.

(3) Answering Each Interrogatory. Each interrogatory must, to the extent it is not objected to, be answered separately and fully in writ­ing under oath.

(4) Objections. The grounds for objecting to an interrogatory must be stated with specificity. Any ground not stated in a timely objection is waived unless the court, for good cause, excuses the failure.

(5) Signature. The person who makes the answers must sign them, and the attorney who objects must sign any objections.

(c) Use. An answer to an interrogatory may be used to the extent al­low­ed by the Federal Rules of Evidence.

(d) Option to Produce Business Records. If the answer to an in­ter­rog­a­to­ry may be determined by examining, auditing, com­pil­ing, ab­stract­ing, or summarizing a party’s business records (in­clud­ing elec­tron­ic­al­ly stored information), and if the burden of de­riving or as­cer­tain­ing the answer will be substantially the same for either party, the re­spond­ing party may answer by:

(1) specifying the records that must be reviewed, in sufficient de­tail to enable the interrogating party to locate and identify them as read­i­ly as the responding party could; and

(2) giving the interrogating party a reasonable opportunity to ex­am­ine and audit the records and to make copies, com­pil­a­tions, ab­stracts, or summaries.

(Amended Dec. 27, 1946, eff. Mar. 19, 1948; Mar. 30, 1970, eff. July 1, 1970; Apr. 29, 1980, eff. Aug. 1, 1980; Apr. 22, 1993, eff. Dec. 1, 1993; Apr. 12, 2005, eff. Dec. 1, 2006; Apr. 30, 2007, eff. Dec. 1, 2007.)