§ 2030.270.Extension of time to respond; agreement of parties

Rather than forcing every extension of the response deadline through a court motion, this section lets the parties handle it themselves by agreement. The propounding party and the responding party can agree to push the deadline for a response, to an entire set of interrogatories or just to particular ones within it, beyond the date Section 2030.260 would otherwise require.

The negotiation behind that agreement does not have to be formal, a phone call or an email exchange between counsel is enough to reach it, but the agreement itself has to end up confirmed in writing that specifies the new, extended date. That writing requirement avoids later disputes over whether an extension was granted at all, or how long it ran. Subdivision (c) then protects the responding party's options by default: unless the agreement expressly says otherwise, agreeing to a later date does not waive the responding party's right to still answer, exercise the option to produce writings under Section 2030.230, or object, in whatever combination Sections 2030.210 through 2030.240 would normally allow. In other words, an extension of time is just that, extra time, not an implicit surrender of the responding party's substantive choices about how to respond.