Legal Term: INTERROGATORIES

Definition: Material and pertinent questions, in writing, to necessary points, not confessed, exhibited for the examination of witnesses or persons who are to give testimony in the cause. 2. They are either original and direct on the part, of him who produces the witnesses, or cross and counter, on behalf of the adverse party, to examine witnesses produced on the other side. Either party, plaintiff or defendant, may exhibit original or cross interrogatories. 3. The form which interrogatories assume, is as various as the minds of the persons who propound them. They should be as distinct as possible, and capable of a definite answer; and they should leave no loop-holes for evasion to an unwilling witness. Care must be observed to put no leading questions in original interrogatories, for these always lead to inconvenience; and for scandal or impertinence, interrogatories will, under certain Circumstances, be suppressed. Vide Will. on Interrogatories, passim; Gresl. Ea. Ev pt. 1, c. 3, s. 1; Vin. Ab. h. t.; Hind s Pr. 317; 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 4419, et seq.

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