Discovery.

§ 1.730 Discovery. (a) A complainant may file with the Commission and serve on a defendant, concurrently with its complaint, up to 10 written interrogatories. A defendant may file with the Commission and serve on a complainant, concurrently with its answer, up to 10 written interrogatories. A complainant may file with the Commission and serve on a defendant, concurrently with its reply, up to five additional written interrogatories. Subparts of any interrogatory will be counted as separate interrogatories for purposes of compliance with this limit. Interrogatories filed and served pursuant to this procedure may be used to seek discovery of any non-privileged matter that is relevant to the material facts in dispute in the pending proceeding. This procedure may not be employed for the purpose of delay, harassment, or obtaining information that is beyond the scope of permissible inquiry related to the material facts in dispute in the proceeding. (b) Interrogatories filed and served pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section shall contain an explanation of why the information sought in each interrogatory is both necessary to the resolution of the dispute and not available from any other source. (c) Unless otherwise directed by the Commission, within seven calendar days, a responding party shall file with the Commission and serve on the propounding party any opposition and objections to interrogatories. The grounds for objecting to an interrogatory must be stated with specificity. Unless otherwise directed by the Commission, any interrogatories to which no opposition or objection is raised shall be answered within 20 calendar days. (d) Commission staff shall rule in writing on the scope of, and schedule for answering, any disputed interrogatories based upon the justification for the interrogatories properly filed and served pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section, and any objections or oppositions thereto, properly filed and served pursuant to paragraph (c) of this section. (e) Interrogatories shall be answered separately and fully in writing under oath or affirmation by the party served, or if such party is a public or private corporation or partnership or association, by any officer or agent who shall furnish such information as is available to the party. The answers shall be signed by the person making them, and the attorney who objects must sign any objections. The answers shall be filed with the Commission and served on the propounding party. (f) The Commission, in its discretion, may allow additional discovery, including, but not limited to, document production and/or depositions, and it may modify the scope, means and scheduling of discovery in light of the needs of a particular case and the requirements of applicable statutory deadlines. (g) The Commission may, in its discretion, require parties to provide documents to the Commission in a scanned or other electronic format that: (1) Indexes the documents by useful identifying information; and (2) Allows staff to annotate the index so as to make the format an efficient means of reviewing the documents. (h) A propounding party asserting that a responding party has provided an inadequate or insufficient response to a discovery request may file a motion to compel within ten days of the service of such response, or as otherwise directed by Commission staff, pursuant to the requirements of § 1.729. [83 FR 44832, Sept. 4, 2018]