Self-drafted interrogatories

[Don_B]

What is the name of your state? AL

I need to send interrogatories to the defendant for the purpose of collecting a judgment. I'm assuming the format used should be as in a standard court document rather than letter form.

Can anyone tell me if the following is basically correct and if I'm entitled to ask everything I list here and I'm using the proper language?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF XXXXX COUNTY, ALABAMA

XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Plaintiff
v.
XXXXXX XXXXXXX
Defendant
Case No. SM-2006-XXXXX

INTERROGATORIES
Comes now the Plaintiff, XXXXXX, and desiring the testimony of the Defendant, XXXXXXXX, propounds the following interrogatories to be answered separately and severally, in the nature and form provided by law: viz:

(1) State your date of birth, drivers license number, social security number and physical address of residence.
(2) State your spouses name and employment.
(3) Describe in detail all of your sources of income or compensation, whether or not reported on any tax return, and, as to all income and assets or services received, set forth the income, assets or services received, the nature and amount of any deductions or set-offs, and the net amount received.
(4) Describe in detail each and all assets in your possession and state your opinion as to the fair market value of each item.
(5) List each and every automobile or motor vehicle, boat, recreational vehicle, trailer or motor home that you currently own, possess, control or drive stating the make, model, year, current license plate number, fair market value and owner of said vehicle.
(6) Please list all real property that you own or have any interest in.
(7) List the name and address of each bank or credit union in which you have had any checking account, savings account, money market account, trust certificate, certificate of deposit and any other account and state the balances in each of said accounts.
(8) List, describe and give present market value of any of the following items you own or have interest in, directly or indirectly:
(a) Negotiable or non negotiable instruments and securities of any description including stock, bonds, mutual funds, treasury instruments, annuity contracts and the like.
(b) Profit sharing trusts; pension plans and retirement plans and individual retirement arrangements and accounts.
(9) List all amounts due you by any corporation, partnerships, persons or other entities. Give the amounts of the debts and the names and addresses of the persons or entities owing you the debts or open accounts.
(10) State whether you are the beneficiary of any estate, trust, insurance policy or annuity. If so, describe the nature and amount of each of those benefits.
Are you aware that your answers are made under oath, may be used as material testimony in the event of a trial or hearing, and must be updated if your foregoing responses change?
Dated this the ______ day of _________, __________
________________________
XXXXXXXXX

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that I have served a copy of the foregoing Interrogatories upon XXXXX XXXXXX by placing a copy of same in the US Mail, properly addressed to the address provided to the court by the defendant and with Certified postage prepaid on this ________ day of ______________

____________________________
XXXXXXXXXX

 

[dcatz]

OP-Many courts have template interrogatories that they provide to judgment creditors for this purpose. If you can’t get something like that from one of your courts, you may have to wait for an AL attorney to confirm that the form is correct, and I don’t know that you’ll quickly find one here.

As to the questions themselves, they are all within the permissible scope of an asset exam post-judgment. You could make it twice as large as it is and still stay within that scope, but if this will suffice for you . . . .

If you’re going to ask for bank address(es) and account balance(s), you might as well ask for account number(s) as well. If you’re going to ask if the debtor knows that answers are made under oath, you might as well just have it signed under penalty of perjury.

You see, it’s my personal opinion that you’re unlikely to get a response to any of the questions. If so, it’s appropriate for you to try to propound them properly but, unfortunately, asset exams and post-judgment interrogatories are, statistically speaking, among the least efficient or effect ways to develop enforcement data. I hope that your experience is to the contrary but, if not, you might consider using the “search” function here and cover all the forums for discussions of more effective alternatives.

 

[Don_B]

Thanks for the info on the validity of my questions. I appreciate your further suggestions.

I ran into our attorney at the bank a while back. He's aware of this small claims case I have going and told me that in Alabama the defendant must answer interrogatories within 30 days or they can be found in contempt. It seems like it's worth pursuing. He says I should proceed with interrogatories.

Subsequently I learned the District Court doesn't provide any templates but I found some representative Alabama interrogatories on-line so that's where I got some of my terminology and the general format. I guess my biggest concern/question is if it's proper for me to send the interrogatories in the format of a standard court document or if I need to format it more like a business letter.

I sent this attorney a copy of my interrogatory document last week for his approval but haven't heard anything back from him yet. Not surprising since it often takes a month of Sundays to get a response about anything from him. He's a one man operation so he may be gone on vacation for a while, too. That's why I'm asking for some basic info here.

As you suggest, I'll do some forum searching to see what I can find. Can you please offer me some tips on what I may be looking for that focuses on "more effective alternatives"?

 

[dcatz]

Sure, he'll be in contempt, if he doesn't answer. Now ask your attorney what the courts in AL do about civil contempt of this nature. Not saying you shouldn't do it and maybe get lucky, but I think you'll find a lot of posts in these forums from ticked-off OPs who found that the Sheriff/Marshal in their state didn't do anything AND they had to pay to get the contempt warrant issued. The plain fact of the matter is that if every Small Claims debtor who ignored an Order to Appear or failed to answer Interrogatories were arrested and jailed for contempt, most Sheriffs wouldn't be doing anything but that and wouldn't have the manpower or the jail space to try.

Don't know enough about your case to make suggestions. Somebody who gets a judgment against a landlord can probably get a court Order to have the tenants' rent paid over. Somebody who gets a judgment for an unpaid loan may have a negotiated check with the judgment debtor's banking information in the endorsement. Somebody who gets a judgment against a retailer perhaps can install a keeper or do a "till tap" etc. etc. etc. The list can be long, but enforcement depends on the what you know or can independently develop about the judgment debtor, then you refine accordingly.