Michigan interrogatories: twenty each, subparts counted, and 28 days to answer
Michigan procedure · Last verified August 17, 2026
Michigan's interrogatory limit is one of the tightest in the country: twenty, per party, per separately represented party. And the rule forecloses the drafting trick that usually gets around such limits.
There are also two deadlines, not one, and the longer one belongs to defendants.
Twenty, and subparts count
MCR 2.309(A)(2):
Each separately represented party may serve no more than twenty interrogatories upon each party. A discrete subpart of an interrogatory counts as a separate interrogatory.
Two things worth unpacking.
The limit is per separately represented party, upon each party. In a case with three separately represented defendants, each may serve twenty on the plaintiff — the plaintiff may face sixty — and the plaintiff may serve twenty on each of them.
And "a discrete subpart … counts as a separate interrogatory." The word doing the work is discrete. A subpart that genuinely elaborates the same enquiry is not discrete; one that asks a separate question is, and it consumes a unit.
When you may serve them
MCR 2.309(A)(1):
A party may serve on another party written interrogatories to be answered by the party served or, if the party served is a public or private corporation, partnership, association, or governmental agency, by an officer or agent. Subject to MCR 2.302(B), interrogatories may, without leave of court, be served:
(a) on the plaintiff after commencement of the action or
(b) on a defendant with or after the service of the summons and complaint on that defendant.
Note (b): interrogatories can be served with the summons and complaint. There is no waiting period in Michigan.
28 days — or 42 for a defendant
MCR 2.309(B)(4):
The party on whom the interrogatories are served must serve the answers and objections, if any, on all other parties within 28 days after the interrogatories are served, except that a defendant may serve answers within 42 days after being served with the summons and complaint. The court may allow a longer or shorter time and, for good cause shown, may excuse service on parties other than the party who served the interrogatories.
| Who is answering | Time |
|---|---|
| Any party, ordinarily | 28 days after service of the interrogatories |
| A defendant served with interrogatories alongside process | 42 days after service of the summons and complaint |
The defendant's 42 days runs from service of the summons and complaint, not from the interrogatories — so a defendant served with both on the same day gets 42, not 28.
Note also that answers go to all other parties, not only to the party that served them, unless the court excuses that for good cause.
How answers must be written
MCR 2.309(B)(1)–(3) sets three formal requirements, each of which is regularly missed:
(1) Each interrogatory must be answered separately and fully in writing under oath. The answers must include such information as is available to the party served or that the party could obtain from his or her employees, agents, representatives, sureties, or indemnitors. If the answering party objects to an interrogatory, the reasons for the objection must be stated in lieu of an answer.
(2) The answering party shall repeat each interrogatory or subquestion immediately before the answer to it.
(3) The answers must be signed by the person making them and the objections signed by the attorney or an unrepresented party making them.
The question must be reproduced immediately before each answer — a bare numbered list of responses does not comply with (2).
The scope of knowledge is wider than your own. You must include what you could obtain from employees, agents, representatives, sureties or indemnitors.
Two different signatures. The party signs the answers, under oath; the attorney signs the objections.
Objecting, and being compelled
MCR 2.309(C):
Motion to Compel Answers. The party submitting the interrogatories may move for an order under MCR 2.313(A) with respect to an objection to or other failure to answer an interrogatory. If the motion is based on the failure to serve answers, proof of service of the interrogatories must be filed with the motion. The motion must state that the movant has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer with the party not making the disclosure in an effort to secure the disclosure without court action.
Two prerequisites for the moving party: proof of service filed with the motion where the complaint is non-service of answers, and a statement of good-faith conferral. A motion missing either is vulnerable before the merits are reached.
What you can ask about
MCR 2.309(D)(1)–(2):
(1) An interrogatory may relate to matters that can be inquired into under MCR 2.302(B).
(2) 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 an interrogatory need not be answered until after designated discovery has been completed or until a pretrial conference or other later time.
So contention interrogatories are permitted — but the court may defer them until later in the case, which is the standard answer to a contention interrogatory served on day one.
And (D)(3) on use: "The answer to an interrogatory may be used to the extent permitted by the rules of evidence." An answer is not automatically admissible.
The business-records option
MCR 2.309(E) provides the escape from a burdensome compilation request, where the answer "may be derived from" business records and the burden of deriving it is substantially the same for both sides — the answering party may specify the records instead of compiling the answer. Where you rely on it, the specification has to be detailed enough for the other side actually to locate the material.
How Michigan compares
| Michigan | Maryland | Federal | Ohio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Numerical limit | 20 per party, per separately represented party | 30 cumulative | 25 including subparts | 40 |
| Subparts counted | discrete subparts, yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Time to answer | 28 days | 30 days | 30 days | 28 days |
| Defendant's extended time | 42 days from process | 15 days after the pleading is due | after the Rule 26(f) conference | — |
| Must repeat the question | yes | yes | no | — |
| Party signs the answers, attorney the objections | yes | party signs | party and attorney | — |
| Contention interrogatories | permitted, may be deferred | permitted | permitted | permitted |
A short checklist
- Count your interrogatories including discrete subparts. Twenty is the ceiling per party.
- Remember the limit is per separately represented party — in a multi-defendant case the totals multiply.
- You may serve on a defendant with the summons and complaint. No leave, no waiting period.
- Diarise 28 days — or 42 if you are a defendant served with process at the same time.
- Reproduce each interrogatory immediately before its answer.
- Answer under oath, signed by the party; objections are signed by the attorney.
- Gather information from agents, employees, representatives, sureties and indemnitors, not just your own file.
- Serve the answers on all parties, unless the court excuses it for good cause.
- Before moving to compel, confer in good faith and say so in the motion — and attach proof of service if the complaint is that no answers came.
- Expect contention interrogatories to be deferred rather than struck.
Where these rules live
- MCR 2.302 — General Rules Governing Discovery
- MCR 2.309 — Interrogatories to Parties
- MCR 2.310 — Requests for Production of Documents
- MCR 2.312 — Request for Admission
- MCR 2.313 — Failure to Provide or to Preserve Discovery
This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and what makes a subpart "discrete" under MCR 2.309(A)(2) is developed in case law this site doesn't cover.