(a) 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 unincorporated association or governmental entity, by any officer or agent, who shall furnish such information as is available to the party. Interrogatories may, without leave of the Presiding Officer, be served upon any party after the filing of an answer.

(b) Procedures for response. Each interrogatory shall be answered separately and fully in writing under oath, unless it is objected to, in which event the reasons for objection shall be stated in lieu of an answer. Each answer shall be submitted in double-spaced typewritten form and shall be immediately preceded by the interrogatory, in single-spaced typewritten form, to which the answer is responsive. The answers are to be signed by the person making them, and the objections signed by the person or representative 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 service of the interrogatories. The Presiding Officer may allow a shorter or longer time for response. The party submitting the interrogatories may move for an order under §1025.36 of these rules with respect to any objection to, or other failure to answer fully, an interrogatory.

(c) Scope of interrogatories. Interrogatories may relate to any matters which can be inquired into under §1025.31(c), and the answers may be used to any extent permitted under these rules. An interrogatory otherwise proper is not objectionable merely because an answer to the interrogatory would involve an opinion or contention which relates to fact or to the application of law to fact, but the Presiding Officer may order that such an interrogatory need not be answered until a later time.

(d) Option to produce business records. Where the answer to an interrogatory may be derived or ascertained from the business records of the party upon whom the interrogatory has been served, or from an examination, audit, or inspection of such business records, or from a compilation, abstract, or summary of those records, and the burden of deriving the answer is substantially the same for the party serving the interrogatory as for the party served, it is a sufficient answer to the 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.