§ 2030.080.Service of interrogatories

This section handles the mechanics of getting a set of interrogatories to everyone who needs to see it. The core obligation runs to the party being asked the questions, that party must be served with a copy. But because a civil action often has more than two sides, the propounding party also has to serve every other party who has already appeared in the case, so nobody litigating the same lawsuit is kept in the dark about what discovery is being exchanged between other parties.

That second obligation, service on everyone else who has appeared, is not absolute. In a case with many parties, routinely copying every appeared party on every set of interrogatories directed at any one of them can become expensive and unwieldy. Subdivision (b) lets the propounding party ask the court, by motion made with or without notice, for relief from that requirement, and the court can grant it on finding that full service really would be unduly expensive or burdensome given the number of parties and the volume of discovery involved.