33.01 Availability; Procedures for Use. Any party may serve upon any other party written interrogatories to be answered by the party served or, if the party served is a public or private corporation or a partnership or association or governmental agency, by any officer or agent, who shall furnish such information as is available to the party. Interrogatories may, without leave of court be served upon the plaintiff after commencement of the action and upon any other party with or after service of the summons and complaint upon that party. Each interrogatory shall be answered separately and fully in writing under oath, unless an objection is made to it or to a portion thereof, in which event the reasons and grounds for objection shall be stated with specificity in lieu of an answer for that portion to which an objection is made. An objection must clearly indicate whether responsive information is being withheld on the basis of that objection. The answers are to be signed by the person making them, and the objections signed by the attorney making them. The party upon whom the interrogatories have been served shall serve a copy of the answers, and objections if any, within 30 days after the service of the interrogatories, except that a defendant may serve answers or objections within 45 days after service of the summons and complaint upon that defendant. The court may allow a shorter or longer time. The party submitting the interrogatories may move for an order under Rule 37.01 with respect to any objection to or other failure to answer an interrogatory.
Rule 33.Interrogatories to Parties
Last amended July 1, 2009 · Last verified July 2, 2026
In one sentenceRule 33 lets any party serve written interrogatories on any other party, to be answered separately, fully, and under oath within 30 days — or 45 days for a defendant answering interrogatories served with the complaint — with any objection stated specifically and required to say whether responsive information is being withheld on that basis.
Full Text of Rule 33
33.02 Scope; Use at Trial. Interrogatories may relate to any matters which can be inquired into under Rule 26.02, and the answers may be used to the extent permitted by the rules of evidence. An interrogatory otherwise proper is not necessarily objectionable merely because an answer to the interrogatory involves an opinion or contention that relates to fact or the application of law to fact, but the court may order that such an interrogatory need not be answered until after designated discovery has been completed or until a pre-trial conference or other later time.
33.03 Option to Produce Business Records. Where the answer to an interrogatory may be derived or ascertained from the business records, including electronically stored information, of the party upon whom the interrogatory has been served or from an examination, audit or inspection of such business records, including a compilation, abstract, or summary thereof, and the burden of deriving or ascertaining the answer is substantially the same for the party serving the interrogatory as for the party served, it is a sufficient answer to such interrogatory to specify the records from which the answer may be derived or ascertained and to afford to the party serving the interrogatory reasonable opportunity to examine, audit or inspect such records and to make copies, compilations, abstracts or summaries. A specification shall be in sufficient detail to permit the interrogating party to locate and to identify, as readily as can the party served, the records from which the answer may be ascertained.
Advisory Commission Comments
Advisory Commission Comments [2009].
Rule 33.03 is amended to parallel Rule 34.01 by recognizing the importance of electronically stored information. The term "electronically stored information" has the same broad meaning in Rule 33.03 as in Rule 34.01. Much business information is stored only in electronic form; the Rule 33.03 option should be available with respect to such records as well. Special difficulties may arise in using electronically stored information, either due to its form or because it is dependent on a particular computer system. Rule 33.03 allows a responding party to substitute access to documents or electronically stored information for an answer only if the burden of deriving the answer will be substantially the same for either party. Rule 33.03 states that a party electing to respond to an interrogatory by providing electronically stored information must ensure that the interrogating party can locate and identify it "as readily as can the party served," and that the responding party must give the interrogating party a "reasonable opportunity to examine, audit, or inspect" the information. Depending on the circumstances, satisfying these provisions with regard to electronically stored information may require the responding party to provide some combination of technical support, information on application software, or other assistance. The key question is whether such support enables the interrogating party to derive or ascertain the answer from the electronically stored information as readily as the responding party. A party that wishes to invoke Rule 33.03 by specifying electronically stored information may be required to provide direct access to its electronic information system, but only if that is necessary to afford the requesting party an adequate opportunity to derive or ascertain the answer to the interrogatory. In that situation, the responding party's need to protect sensitive interests of confidentiality or privacy may mean that it must derive or ascertain and provide the answer itself rather than invoke Rule 33.03.
Amendment History
- As amended July 1, 1979, and by order entered January 31, 1984, effective August 20, 1984.
- and by order entered January 8, 2009, effective July 1, 2009.
Plain-English Summary
Rule 33.01 lets any party serve written interrogatories on any other party, without needing the court's permission, once the action has commenced against the plaintiff or once the summons and complaint have been served on any other party. A corporation, partnership, association, or governmental agency must answer through an officer or agent who can furnish the information available to that party. Each interrogatory must be answered separately and fully in writing under oath unless it is objected to, in which case the reasons for the objection must be stated specifically — and the objection must clearly say whether any responsive information is being withheld on the basis of that objection, closing off the practice of listing boilerplate objections while quietly answering in full anyway. Answers are signed by the person who gave them, and objections are signed by the attorney who raised them. The responding party generally has 30 days to serve answers and objections, except that a defendant served with interrogatories along with the summons and complaint gets 45 days, and the court can shorten or lengthen either deadline.
Rule 33.02 ties the scope of interrogatories to the same scope of discovery Rule 26.02 allows, and it makes clear that an interrogatory is not objectionable merely because it calls for an opinion or a contention that relates to fact or to the application of law to fact — though the court can order that this kind of interrogatory need not be answered until later discovery is complete or a pretrial conference has been held.
Rule 33.03 gives the responding party an option when an interrogatory's answer can be derived from that party's own business records, including electronically stored information, and the burden of digging out the answer would fall about equally on either side: instead of narrating a written answer, the party can specify which records contain the answer and give the requesting party a reasonable opportunity to examine, audit, or copy them. The specification has to be detailed enough that the requesting party can locate and identify the records about as easily as the responding party could, and where the records are electronic, they generally need to be produced in a form that is as usable and searchable to the requesting party as it was to the party that produced it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a party have to answer interrogatories?
Rule 33.01 gives a party 30 days to serve answers and objections, except that a defendant who is served with interrogatories along with the summons and complaint gets 45 days. The court can shorten or lengthen either deadline.
Can I object to an interrogatory without saying whether I am withholding information?
No. Rule 33.01 requires an objection to state specifically whether responsive information is being withheld on the basis of that objection, ending the practice of raising boilerplate objections while answering in full without saying so.
Can I answer an interrogatory by pointing to my business records instead of writing out an answer?
Yes, in some circumstances. Rule 33.03 allows this option when the answer can be derived from your own business records and the burden of doing so would be about the same for either party, provided you identify the records specifically enough for the other side to locate them as easily as you could.
Source & verification. The rule text and Advisory Commission Comments are reproduced verbatim from the
official Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure (Tenn. R. Civ. P. 33). Prescribed by the Supreme Court of Tennessee (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 16-3-402 to 16-3-407, 16-3-601). The plain-English summary is original and written by us. Last verified July 2, 2026. ·
Official source
Also known as: written interrogatoriesboilerplate objectionsbusiness records option
Advisory Commission Comments.
Rule 33 deals specifically with written interrogatories to adverse parties. It thus differs from Rule 31 which deals generally with depositions of "any person" upon written interrogatories. Rule 33, providing a simple method of obtaining the "official position" of an adversary on specific questions, would seem to constitute a useful addition to Tennessee procedure. Rule 33 previously provided that the plaintiff could not serve interrogatories within 30 days after the commencement of the action without obtaining leave of the court. Rule 33.01 now [in 1979] permits interrogatories, without leave of the court, to be served by the plaintiff with or after service of the summons and complaint upon the defendant. [1979.] Rule 33.03 is new [in 1979] and should permit the more equitable apportionment of the burden of examining voluminous records. [1979.]
33.03: Purely as an option for the party required to respond to interrogatories, Rule 33 has allowed under certain circumstances substituting specification and an opportunity to examine records in place of written answers. If the option is exercised, the discovered party must specify in a realistic and pragmatic fashion the business records from which answers can be obtained. [1984.]