[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 16, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 16CFR3.35]

[Page 63-64]
 
                     TITLE 16--COMMERCIAL PRACTICES
 
                   CHAPTER I--FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
 
PART 3_RULES OF PRACTICE FOR ADJUDICATIVE PROCEEDINGS--Table of Contents
 
                 Subpart D_Discovery; Compulsory Process
 
Sec. 3.35  Interrogatories to parties.

    (a) Availability; Procedures for Use. (1) Any party may serve upon 
any other party written interrogatories, not exceeding twenty-five (25) 
in number, including all discrete subparts, to be answered by the party 
served or, if the party served is a public or private corporation, 
partnership, association or governmental agency, by any officer or 
agent, who shall furnish such information as is available to the party. 
For this purpose, information shall not be deemed to be available 
insofar as it is in the possession of the Commissioners, the General 
Counsel, the office of Administrative Law Judges, or the Secretary in 
his capacity as custodian or recorder of any such information, or their 
respective staffs.
    (2) Each interrogatory shall be answered separately and fully in 
writing under oath, unless it is objected to on grounds not raised and 
ruled on in connection with the authorization, in which event the 
reasons for objection shall be stated in lieu of an answer. 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 thirty (30) days after the service of the interrogatories. The 
Administrative Law Judge may allow a shorter or longer time.
    (b) Scope; use at hearing. (1) Interrogatories may relate to any 
matters that can be inquired into under Sec. 3.31(c)(1), and the 
answers may be used to the extent permitted by the rules of evidence.
    (2) An interrogatory otherwise proper is not necessarily 
objectionable merely because an answer to the interrogatory

[[Page 64]]

involves an opinion or contention that relates to fact or the 
application of law to fact, but the Administrative Law Judge 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.
    (c) Option to produce records. Where the answer to an interrogatory 
may be derived or ascertained from the records of the party upon whom 
the interrogatory has been served or from an examination, audit or 
inspection of such records, or from a compilation, abstract or summary 
based thereon, 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. The specification shall 
include sufficient detail to permit the interrogating party to identify 
readily the individual documents from which the answer may be 
ascertained.

[43 FR 56867, Dec. 4, 1978, as amended at 61 FR 50649, Sept. 26, 1996]