under direction of a court; Return To Chapter TOC. 250 Fax: 210-801-9661 There are several reasons for why an attorney will object to form. If you or your client has won a judgment, you will need a lawyer with specific experience enforcing post-judgment collections using effective post-judgment discovery techniques. Austin, TX 78746 5. 0000004554 00000 n 0000009081 00000 n Moreover, Plaintiff does not waive its right to amend its responses. P . 250 Subject to and without waiver of the foregoing objection: Frank contacted Plaintiff via telephone initially and made an agreement with Plaintiff. You may object, claiming the privilege for certain trial preparation materials, attorney-client privilege, or any other privilege available by statute or under common law tort principles. SFD objects to the Interrogatories to the extent they require information reflecting conduct or circumstances prior to January 1, 1997, or after January 31, 2001. The interviews were memorialized by notes and/or memoranda written by Antitrust Division attorneys and staff. To the extent any of Defendant's document requests or its interrogatory seek documents or answers that include expert material, including but not limited to survey materials, Plaintiff objects to any such requests and interrogatory as premature and expressly reserves the right to supplement, clarify, revise, or correct any or all responses to such requests, and to assert additional objections or privileges, in one or more subsequent supplemental response(s) in accordance with the time period for exchanging expert reports set by the Court. You may object to an interrogatory that seeks your Social Security Number or documents related to a claim for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits in most cases. While this article will focus on spe cific objections, the procedure in responding to discovery is important. EP-20-CV-2-KC (W.D. Providing such information in answering this interrogatory would be oppressive, unduly burdensome and unnecessarily expensive, and the burden of providing such information in answering this interrogatory is substantially the same or less for Defendant as for Plaintiff. Read court documents, court records online and search Trellis.law comprehensive legal database for any state court documents. Plaintiff, by and through its attorneys, and pursuant to Rules 33 and 34 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Local Rules of this Court, responds and objects to Defendant Dentsply International, Inc.'s ("Dentsply") Second Request for Documents and First Set of Interrogatories as follows: 1. SFD objects to the Interrogatories to the extent they require information or responses regarding companies other than The Smithfield Packing Company, Incorporated ("Packing"), Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. ("Gwaltney"), and the Smithfield Companies, Inc. ("Smithfield Companies"), and their subsidiaries, or SFD. Working with a lawyer familiar with the many complexities of interrogatories will minimize the time, money, and effort spent responding to interrogatories during discovery. 0000005003 00000 n 0000045788 00000 n 0000004121 00000 n " Generally, a party may ask for any information that is not privileged and is relevant to the lawsuit. 7. Xf]],b|EIX~~k rI)Qb*9VN@7qq 8ZVd6E9%p86>. Nor have such notes and/or memoranda of interviews been seen by anyone other than the case staff and other attorneys and staff of Plaintiff assisting with or reviewing the investigation. Personal, Constitutional or Property Rights 600 Telephone: 210-714-6999 Telephone: 512-501-4148 A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Official websites use .gov Describe any changes made in the policies, procedures or practices of any Smithfield subsidiary relating to logistics as a result of any actions by, or at the direction of, Lawrence Shipp, whose appointment as Vice President, Logistics, you announced in a press released dated January 3, 2002. Identify all persons who have been signatories on each bank account maintained in the name of any Smithfield subsidiary. 0000013533 00000 n All such information, prepared in anticipation of litigation and not disclosed or otherwise maintained in a way that is inconsistent with the purpose of the privilege, is protected by the work product doctrine. SFD objects to the Interrogatories to the extent they seek information regarding companies that DOJ has not alleged or asserted were involved in the events giving rise to the alleged violations of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. 0000016088 00000 n Walker Preliminary written discovery is a constant in all of litigation. Houston Office Nearly all, if not all, documents in Plaintiff's files would thus "reflect" some such verbatim statement because to some degree the documents contain information derived from verbatim statements. 2. Use boilerplate wording from form files. BoyarMiller attorney Whitney Brieck discussed evolving trends in how Texas courts are applying the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure to streamline written discovery, as well as some best practices for successfully making and challenging discovery objections. Rule 193 - Written Discovery: Response; Objection; Assertion of Privilege; Supplementation and Amendment; Failure to Timely Respond; Presumption of Authenticity 193.1 Responding to Written Discovery; Duty to Make Complete Response.. A party must respond to written discovery in writing within the time provided by court order or these rules. Information Equally Available to the Other Party Information Obtainable from Another Source endstream endobj 334 0 obj <>stream 305839). 0000001156 00000 n Plaintiff further objects to this request, whether broadly or more narrowly construed, to the extent it seeks production of documents protected by the work product doctrine, the governmental deliberative process privilege, or the attorney-client privilege. ?3Z-RRqu&pamS6eWVgzg{L64l:G-@0LzQI` * 2. I believe, based on reasonable inquiry, that the foregoing answers are true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. 0000017752 00000 n Plaintiff will treat this request as if it called for documents (1) that contain, include, or are derived from any statement made by a third party to the DOJ and (2) that were signed and/or adopted, formally or informally, by that third party. 0000008284 00000 n 108 Wild Basin Rd. Or the court may cause you to produce more information than you otherwise would have. Moral of the Story: You need to bring a motion to strike any " General Response and Objections " so the responding party can be held accountable for . All such documents and information will not be produced. Plaintiff objects to each instruction, definition, document request, and interrogatory as overbroad and unduly burdensome to the extent it seeks documents or information that are readily or more accessible to Defendant from Defendant's own files, from documents or information in Defendant's possession, or from documents or information that Defendant previously produced to Plaintiff. Telephone: 817-953-8826 In contrast, objecting on the ground that the interrogatory is unduly burdensome may require an affidavit explaining the time and expense necessary to answer. Because work product is not a proper objection to contention interrogatories, the trial court had no discretion and could only overrule Vola's work product objections. To satisfy this burden, you should state your objection with specificity. 0000007400 00000 n Moreover, "[a]n objection to an interrogatory shall be made by stating the objection and the reason therefore either in the space following the interrogatory or . Vagueness, Lacks Specificity, or Ambiguity of Request 1, which also used this undefined term, Plaintiff used "contain, include, or are derived from" as the equivalent of "reflecting" in an attempt to read the request broadly. These objections contradict the Civil Rules or other authority. 0000002972 00000 n Understanding the level of the case is vital in order to avoid exceeding the number of interrogatories, requests for production, or admissions allowed by a litigant. There are two reasons to object to an interrogatory. 1987) (orig. Describe any changes made in the policies, procedures or practices of any Smithfield subsidiary relating to logistics or information technology as a result of any actions by, or at the direction of, Mansour Zadeh, whose appointment as Chief Information Officer, you announced in a press release dated January 3, 2002. Plaintiff objects to Instruction No. In federal court, you have more time to object to interrogatories. As to the person or persons who participated in responding to these Interrogatories please supply: (a) the name and title of each such person; (b) the home address of the defendant in this case; (c) the business address of the defendant in this case. You may find this objection is justified if an interrogatory asks for personal information or details of your financial condition that is unrelated to the claim's subject matter. Interview memoranda of the Antitrust Division, however, and notes of such interviews are protected from discovery by the work product doctrine. According to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the only available objections are: (1) form, (2) non-responsive, and (3) leading. Code of Civil Procedure section 2030.290 provides that if responses to interrogatories are not timely, all . 0 Further, Lawrence Shipp joined SFD as Vice President of Logistics on January 3, 2002. 0000049836 00000 n An interrogatory that asks for a professional opinion from a lay witness is improper, and you should object. _sP2&E) \RM*bd#R\RWp G Attendance at such interviews was limited to, at most, the interviewee, Antitrust Division attorneys and staff, counsel for the interviewee (in some interviews), and a potential testifying expert economist (in some interviews). trailer<<1a04de2f15c59ddb12f61be11564f689>]>> startxref 0 %%EOF 146 0 obj <>/Outlines 38 0 R/Pages 144 0 R/StructTreeRoot 63 0 R/Type/Catalog/Metadata 143 0 R>> endobj 166 0 obj <. However, because there is no formal definition of what exactly constitutes a discrete subpart, accurately determining whether a subpart of a question counts as a separate interrogatory is a challenge. 0000003145 00000 n 0000000616 00000 n 0000007817 00000 n P. 33(d), a defendant may also refer to business records in response to an interrogatory. 3.12. In the 1995 Texas Supreme Court case Dillard Department Stores Inc. v. Hall, the plaintiff sought computer records and internal reports regarding 668 prior false-arrest claims by other customers . SFD objects to the Interrogatories, and any implied or express instruction or direction in the Interrogatories, that impose or seeks to impose burdens greater than those imposed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Vagueness, Lacks Specificity, or Ambiguity of Request 0000014400 00000 n Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 192.3 outlines the scope of discovery. Lacks Specific Description within Request Telephone: 210-714-6999 0000002779 00000 n Consequently, there are no individuals and entities who were interviewed by the DOJ pursuant to its "CID" investigation of Dentsply. %%EOF E-mail: info@silblawfirm.com, Fort Worth Office Assertions of Privilege. "During" can be construed to mean "at the time of," instead of "in the course of." Interrogatory No. 12. Therefore, there are no "statements" as that term is defined. An objection(s) to discovery is an . HSj1W9Lz`6+qN6rIhaAURp]$P"p%^A`R 3O(eCY4NP1AXauzAvI#7\\\;AAcSnv>R'k2"u|R=tQayL}K"%I'DXm`,1V:GtkA q#c&_hqI+q`m{7&(,k]q@mgZCpvv)K=L\0*o U=RnOJ[z2C)Uzi_o"yd9L~E ^b 8000 IH-10 West, Suite 600 trailer These Sample Interrogatories do not change any court requirements. 0000000016 00000 n 0 HN@Htqtj0J|}g2sRR 7 Plaintiff objects to Instruction No. Law BoyarMiller attorneys Robert Arthur and Whitney Brieck discussed evolving trends in how Texas courts are applying the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure to streamline written discovery, as well as some best practices for successfully making and challenging discovery objections. Objections to Discovery Frivolous objections to discovery requests are subject to sanctions by the trial court, including, e.g., objections to identification of persons having knowledge of relevant facts and identification of testifying expert witnesses. Plaintiff objects to this request as vague and ambiguous because it relies on the undefined term "CID investigation." 13009 issued to Dentsply by the DOJ in connection with its antitrust investigation of Dentsply prior to the filing of its complaint on January 5, 1999," that definition gives no greater meaning to the phrase "CID investigation," unless it is intended to limit the definition of "third party" to those individuals and entities interviewed by Plaintiff pursuant to Civil Investigative Demand Number 13009. You can interpret the question narrowly and respond. (yvrXJ2TYBFW/1U>YS)YQmKg{1f.uMa7ebi$x!=-6^-N7{BAE!MC@\ 7t!M` pzTx|}j3%Db#7cxbxFhn0EnO;>E"Ff|"WH}Wg kg'fM dmU@~hRT x While "CID" is defined in Definition No. 0000002168 00000 n xref 5. The Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP)contains standards for interrogatories applicable to all federal courts in the country. SFD objects to the Interrogatories to the extent they are overly broad, unduly burdensome, or not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Civil Rule 33 (a) (2) provides that an interrogatory is not objectionable simply because it "asks for an opinion or contention that relates to the application of law to fact." 0000007286 00000 n Information Obtainable from Another Source %PDF-1.4 % Discovery battles are time-consuming and annoy judges. EXHIBIT B. to Smith Declaration For example, "Defendant objects to each and every interrogatory on the grounds that it is made, unlimited in time, invasive of attorney work product, seeks privileged . 2 to the extent that it calls for documents protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege, deliberative process privilege, attorney work product doctrine, or any other applicable privilege. SMITHFIELD FOODS, INC 200 Commerce Street Smithfield, Virginia 23420. 0000002798 00000 n Depending on the type of action youve brought, you may be able to limit your answer to state whether you have any felony convictions or convictions involving moral turpitude (lying, cheating, or stealing). 303.1: Objection. 58 0 obj<> endobj As noted above, such a log would include virtually every internal document created by Plaintiff over the course of Plaintiff's civil investigation of Dentsply's distribution and marketing of artificial teeth. 2.The contention interrogatory must explicitly seek facts and not contentions or legal theories or analyses. 0000005084 00000 n 1, including federal corporate income tax returns, state income tax returns, and state property tax returns. 0000016965 00000 n Fax: 512-318-2462 Interrogatory No. Lacks Specific Description within Request, Vagueness, Lacks Specificity, or Ambiguity of Request, Information Obtainable from Another Source, Information Equally Available to the Other Party, Request Creates Unnecessary Burden, Expense, or Made for Purposes of Harassment, Personal, Constitutional or Property Rights, Information Unknown or Not in Possession of Responding Party, Request Seeks Admission of a Legal Proposition, Objection Due to Permissibility of a Discovery Tool, Disinheriting a Family Member: The One-Dollar Myth, Proper Procedures for Remote Online Notarizations, Fraudulent Inducement Involving Developer Deed Restrictions. 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