Interrogatories - Example

Example

One example is compensation arising out of a road accident. In reality a road traffic accident is rarely complicated. However to demonstrate the concept, this section assumes there is a car accident in a Common Law jurisdiction that does use complicated concepts ...

In this hypothetical claim the injured person would usually rely on the fact that the driver to be held responsible has (in the injured person's opinion) committed the tort of negligence. If they did that, the law requires the injured person to show that the driver owed them a duty of care and breached it. In practical reality, the courts accept that drivers owe other road users and pedestrians a duty of care, and the case would come down to whether the driver drove in accordance with the standard of a reasonable driver, and whether the injured person's injuries are a foreseeable consequence of the driving.

However, the manner in which the injured person could seek to prove those things is quite variable. In the simplest case the injured person could allege that the driver went too fast, failed to control the car properly or failed to keep lookout. The driver may have a defense to those allegations, perhaps if the accident occurred at low speed, and was unavoidable (maybe due to some third party intervention). The injured person may, however, argue that the driver was still responsible (perhaps the driver should have used the horn of the vehicle to alert the third party), or there may be other allegations.

The pleadings of the parties are intended to let the other parties know what each side will seek to prove at trial, and what case they have to answer.

However, in a complicated case, the pleadings may not give enough information. In the above example, the pleading may allege:

The driver drove negligently. The details of the negligence are,

1. failing to drive carefully
2. driving too fast
3. failing to make proper use of the car's controls
4. failing to take reasonable steps to alert the third party so as to avoid the accident.

The driver is told the broad outlines of the case, but still does not know what allegation is being made regarding alerting the third party.

The driver can therefore issue an interrogatory to require the injured party to state exactly what it is that the driver did not do and should have done.

In the hypothetical example, this would assist the litigation process, because for example, if the injured person states that the driver ought to have alerted the third party, the driver may be aware that the law imposes no such duty, and can issue a motion (or application) to the court to have that part of the claim dismissed.