Unless you are an attorney or otherwise employed in the legal industry in some way, shape, or form, it’s a safe bet that you are not fluent in legalese. You don’t know all of the terms judges and lawyers use when they talk to one another. Take the term ‘interrogatories’. Do you know what they are? Do you know that they can he conducted both pre- and post-trial?
If you are familiar with the term ‘interrogation’, you might have an inkling into what interrogatories are. But don’t think of a criminal suspect sitting in a dimly lit interview room with two detectives hovering over his shoulder and peppering him with questions. Interrogatories in a civil litigation scenario are considerably more laid back, and a lot more professional.
A Discovery Tool for Attorneys
The best way to describe interrogatories is to say they are a discovery tool for attorneys. Attorneys rely on interrogatories to gather information from one another. They are conducted based on the rules of each jurisdiction. More often than not, that means one party submitting written questions the other party is compelled to answer under oath.
Attorneys rely on interrogatories to:
- Uncover relevant facts.
- Narrow down potential trial issues.
- Prepare for depositions.
- Encourage admissions from the other party.
Three of the four things in this list deal with pre-trial interrogatories. Only the goal of uncovering relevant facts applies to both pre- and post-trial interrogatories. What types of facts would attorneys be after post-trial?
More About Post-Trial Interrogatories
There are no guilty or not guilty verdicts in civil litigation. Instead, courts deal with the issue of liability. That means there are no sentences either. Instead, civil courts rendered judgments. This is where post-trial interrogatories become important.
Imagine a case involving a company and a customer who has not paid his bill. The trial concludes with a judgment being entered in favor of the company. The customer is now compelled by court order to pay his bill, additional interest and late fees, and the company’s attorney and court costs. What if he doesn’t have the money to pay?
According to Salt Lake City’s Judgment Collectors, this is the point at which creditors start looking at wages and personal assets. Interrogatories are conducted to get relevant information. Attorneys can ask about:
- Wages and annual salary.
- Current employment status.
- Current address and phone.
- Non-exempt assets.
Post-trial interrogatories serve the exclusive purpose of helping a judgment creditor’s attorney get a better picture of how collection might be undertaken. Creditor attorneys are restricted to asking only questions pertaining to collection. Courts sometimes limit the total number of questions they can ask.
When Both Are Used
It’s not unusual for both pre- and post-trial interrogatories to be utilized by attorneys. Pre-trial, the attorneys for both sides are equally likely to utilize interrogatories to help their cases. The goal is to glean as much information as possible through questions that are supposed to be answered truthfully.
Post-trial, a judgment debtors attorney would likely have no need for interrogatories. Therefore, they tend to be the domain of judgment creditor attorneys. Said attorneys need to know as much as possible about the debtor’s financial position so that a collection strategy can be developed.
In some jurisdictions, courts can issue bench warrants for debtors who fail to voluntarily comply with interrogatories. A bench warrant would lead to the debtor’s arrest, transport to court, in compulsion to provide answers. Fortunately, it doesn’t come to that in most cases. Attorneys wisely advise their clients to participate in the process to avoid making a bad situation even worse.
