Discovery allows spouses in a California divorce to obtain information and narrow the issues that may ultimately need to be resolved by agreement or trial. One discovery tool, called a Request for Admission, serves a particularly focused purpose. Rather than simply asking the other spouse for information, Requests for Admission ask that spouse to formally admit or deny specified matters or admit that particular documents are genuine.

Requests for Admission Can Establish Facts or Authenticate Documents

A Request for Admission may ask a party to admit the truth of a specified matter. It can also ask a party to admit that a particular document is genuine.

This makes Requests for Admission different from interrogatories. An interrogatory generally asks the responding party to provide information in a written answer. A Request for Admission instead seeks a formal position on a particular matter.

For example, disputed financial or property issues may involve facts that one party believes should not require extensive evidence at trial. Requests for Admission can be used to determine whether the opposing party will admit those matters rather than requiring them to be proven through other evidence.

The same principle applies to documents. When the genuineness of a document can be admitted through discovery, that may eliminate a dispute that otherwise would have to be addressed later in the litigation.

Requests for Admission can only be directed to a party to the case. They are not a method for requiring an unrelated third party to make admissions.

California Places Limits and Requirements on These Requests

California discovery procedure imposes specific requirements on Requests for Admission. Each requested admission must be separately stated and identified. Requests for Admission also cannot simply be combined into the same document with another discovery method such as interrogatories.

Generally, a party may request admissions concerning up to 35 matters that do not involve the genuineness of documents. Additional requests may be permitted when the required procedure is followed and the complexity or quantity of the issues justifies a larger number.

Requests concerning whether documents are genuine are treated differently for purposes of this numerical limitation. When a party asks the other side to admit the genuineness of a document, a copy of the document must be attached to the requests, and the original must be made available for inspection upon demand.

The responding party ordinarily has 30 days after service to serve responses. A responding party may also seek a protective order concerning Requests for Admission when the requirements for such relief are satisfied.

An Admission Can Have a Significant Effect on the Case

The consequences of an admission are what make this discovery method particularly important.

A matter admitted in response to a Request for Admission is conclusively established against the party making the admission for purposes of the pending case, unless the court later permits the admission to be withdrawn or amended.

That is substantially different from providing information that simply becomes one piece of evidence among many. An admission can remove the admitted issue from the factual disputes that remain to be proven.

Requests for Admission may also be used alongside separate interrogatories that require a party who does not give an unqualified admission to identify the facts and documents supporting that response. This can help clarify exactly why a matter remains disputed.

For that reason, Requests for Admission can serve both an information-gathering and an issue-narrowing function as a California family law case moves toward settlement or trial.

Requests for Admission Can Narrow What Must Be Proven

Requests for Admission are a focused but potentially powerful part of California family law discovery. They can establish particular facts, determine whether documents are genuine, and identify matters that remain genuinely disputed. Because an admission can conclusively establish a matter in the pending action, both serving and responding to these requests can have consequences that extend well beyond the discovery process.