§ 2030.040.Circumstances warranting more than 35 specially

The 35-interrogatory cap in Section 2030.030 is not absolute; this section supplies the substantive reasons that can justify going over it. A party can propound extra specially prepared interrogatories, backed by the Section 2030.050 declaration, when a greater number is warranted by the complexity or sheer quantity of the issues in the case, by the financial burden that deposing witnesses instead would impose, or by the practical efficiency of using interrogatories to give the responding party a chance to search its own files or records for the information sought rather than testify about it live.

Attaching the declaration does not end the inquiry, it only lets the extra interrogatories go out subject to challenge. If the responding party moves for a protective order under Section 2030.090 arguing that the number is unwarranted, subdivision (b) puts the burden on the propounding party to justify that number, not on the responding party to disprove it. In practice, that burden-shifting rule means a party who wants to serve, say, 75 specially prepared interrogatories should be ready to explain concretely why the case's complexity or the alternative costs of deposition discovery call for that many, since a bare declaration reciting the statutory language without case-specific detail invites a successful protective-order challenge.