I have been getting a lot of emails and posts in regard to this question so hopefully I can clear this up. Now, let’s keep in mind that I am not a lawyer so this is not legal advice. This is common sense and a warning to everyone out there who gets discovery sent to them which includes request for admissions or titled request to admit facts.

Do you need to answer your request for admissions that were given to you by the plaintiff? Absolutely.

The first thing you need to do is look up your local court rules under ‘Discovery’ or your local court rules could have ‘Admissions’, ‘Interrogatories’ and ‘Production of Documents’ all labeled separately.

Now, I don’t know what state you are visiting from so I will show you an example of an request for admissions in Indiana. This is what they tell me I need to do:

Each matter of which an admission is requested shall be separately set forth. The matter is admitted unless, within a period designated in the request, not less than 30 days after service thereof or within such shorter or longer time as the court may allow, the party to whom the request is directed serves upon the party requesting the admission a written answer or objection addressed to the matter, signed by the party or by his attorney.

Do you see what that is telling me? To clarify, my court is telling me that every single request for an admission is deemed admitted unless I answer those admissions by simply giving them a written answer or objecting to them.

In order for you to answer, the lawyer who sent you those admissions should have told you how many days you have or told you that according to your local court rules these admissions are being requested of you. They may leave out how long you have to answer them.

Now if you were given request for admissions and you ignore these or don’t answer them, all the opposing attorney needs to do is file a motion to have those admissions deemed admitted per your local court rule. In case I am confusing anyone, here is how this plays out:

The opposing attorney draws up a paper labeled request for admissions or request to admit facts.

On that paper it will tell you how many days you have to answer them or they may just state ‘according to your court rule ____ you must answer the below admissions’.

You decide you aren’t going to answer those admissions and the time lapses over the 30 day mark (or how many days you were given).

Each and every admission that the lawyer asked you to answer can and will be deemed admitted because you failed to answer those admissions.

Now look at those admissions. All of them will be deemed admitted. What if those admissions have on there:

• Admit you owe ________ $4,000.00.
• Admit that you opened a credit card with ________ bank on ______ date.
• Admit that you use that credit card
• and more…

It doesn’t matter what is on there; each and every admission will be deemed admitted.

So if you decide not to answer the admissions, you are basically letting them win their case. If you don’t answer your admissions, you admit every single thing on there. You admit you owe them money, you admit you opened a credit card account, you admit you defaulted and you admit that they get attorney fees and more.

If they file a motion to have those admissions deemed admitted, you will lose and you will owe them every single penny. You must answer your request for admissions.

If you cannot answer those admissions in a timely manner, you can call the law firm and ask for an extension of time. If they won’t work with you, you can file a motion with the court requesting more time.

There is no excuse for not answering those admissions. If you don’t know how to properly answer those admissions, go here for further help: click here.

Answer them or lose your case. And remember, they must be notarized.