California employment form interrogatories on Judicial Council form DISC-002 are a set of pre-approved written questions a party in an employment lawsuit can send to the other side by checking the boxes next to the questions they want answered under oath. You download the form free from the California Courts website, mark the interrogatories that fit your claims or defenses, and have it served on the opposing party. The form is built for employment cases specifically, which is why it covers hiring, discipline, termination, discrimination, harassment, disability accommodation, and defamation in one place.
What the Form Asks
DISC-002 is organized into numbered series. Each series targets one piece of the employment relationship or one type of claim, and you check only the questions that matter to your case.
- 200.0 Contract Formation — at-will status, written or oral agreements, collective bargaining coverage.
- 201.0 Adverse Employment Action — terminations, suspensions, demotions, failures to hire or promote, and the reasons behind them.
- 202.0 Discrimination — what the employee says happened, who did it, when, and who saw it.
- 203.0 Harassment — the same core questions applied to harassment, including whether internal complaints were made.
- 204.0 Disability Discrimination — employer knowledge of the disability, accommodations requested, and the interactive process.
- 205.0 Discharge in Violation of Public Policy — wrongful termination for refusing to break the law or exercising a legal right.
- 206.0 Defamation — allegedly false and damaging statements about the employee.
- 207.0 Internal Complaints — grievances or reports made inside the company.
- 208.0 Governmental Complaints — filings with agencies such as the EEOC or California’s Civil Rights Department.
- 209.0 Other Employment Claims — a catch-all for claims outside the earlier categories.
- 210.0 through 213.0 Damages — lost income from both sides’ perspectives, physical and emotional injuries, and other losses.
- 214.0 through 217.0 Litigation Details — insurance that might pay a judgment, investigations, affirmative defenses, and responses to requests for admission.
A basic wrongful termination case might use 200.0, 201.0, 205.0, and the damages series. A discrimination-and-harassment case will pull from 202.0, 203.0, and often 204.0 as well. Checking boxes for series that have nothing to do with your case invites objections and wastes time on both sides.
Filling Out the Form
Enter the case caption at the top of the first page exactly as it appears on the complaint: court name, all party names, and the case number. Even a misspelled name creates confusion in the court file.
Then identify the propounding party (the one asking) and the responding party (the one answering). The form has separate fields labeled “Individual Title” and “Organization Title” so you can specify whether the questions go to a person or a business. If you are suing both a company and an individual manager, you may need to serve separate copies directed at each.
Everything after that is checkboxes. Read the full text of each interrogatory, including sub-parts, before you check it, because every sub-part in a checked question also has to be answered.
How Many Questions You Can Ask
California treats form interrogatories differently from custom ones. In an unlimited civil case, meaning any case seeking more than $35,000, there is no numerical cap on form interrogatories. You can check every applicable box on DISC-002. Specially prepared interrogatories are capped at 35 per party as a matter of right, and asking more requires a declaration justifying the additional questions.
In a limited civil case, where damages are $35,000 or less, the rule tightens. Each party has a combined total of 35 discovery requests across all categories — form interrogatories, special interrogatories, requests for admission, and document requests all count against that single cap.
Serving the Form
Once the boxes are checked, the form has to reach the opposing party through an authorized method. Code of Civil Procedure Section 1013 permits service by mail, overnight delivery, or fax. Electronic service is available under California Rules of Court Rule 2.251, but only if the receiving party has consented, either by filing a notice with the court or by agreeing through an electronic filing service provider. In many courts, parties required to file electronically must also accept electronic service.
You cannot serve the form yourself if you are a party to the lawsuit. A neutral person at least 18 years old has to handle delivery. That person then completes a Proof of Service, typically form POS-040, documenting what was served, on whom, when, and how. Keep it in your file. If the other side later claims they never received the interrogatories, the proof of service is the evidence that they did.
Responding to a DISC-002
If you are on the receiving end, you have 30 days from the date of service to provide written answers. Add five calendar days when the form was served by mail within California. A court can shorten or extend the period on motion, but 30 days is the default.
Each answer must be separate and in writing. The responding party signs the answers under oath, not the attorney. If the responding party is a company, an officer or agent signs. Objections are signed by the attorney. A response that mixes substantive answers and objections needs both signatures.
Missing the deadline is costly. A party that fails to respond waives all objections, including privilege. Attorney-client communications, work product, and trade secrets that could have been shielded become fair game simply because no response went out on time.
Objections You Can Raise
Not every checked interrogatory demands a substantive answer, but objections have to be specific. A blanket “objected to” with no explanation will not hold up.
The common grounds in employment cases are overbreadth (the question reaches far beyond the claims), vagueness (the question is ambiguous enough that the responder genuinely cannot tell what is being asked), privilege (most often attorney-client communications or attorney work product such as notes prepared in anticipation of litigation), and undue burden (the effort to answer is unreasonable compared with the question’s relevance).
Even with a valid objection, the responding party usually has to answer the parts of the interrogatory that are not objectionable. Objecting to one piece does not excuse you from the rest.
Protective Orders
When objections are not enough, or when the concern is how information will be used after it is disclosed, a party can move for a protective order under CCP Section 2030.090. The court can rule that certain interrogatories need not be answered, that answers be sealed, that trade secrets be disclosed only under restricted conditions, or that the response timeline be extended. The motion must include a meet-and-confer declaration showing the parties tried to resolve the dispute informally first.
These come up most often when interrogatories reach into confidential personnel files, proprietary business information, or medical records tied to a disability claim. The court weighs the requesting party’s need against the harm from disclosure. Losing a protective-order motion can trigger monetary sanctions, so it is not a tool to use lightly.
When the Responses Are Inadequate
If the responses you receive are evasive, incomplete, or padded with meritless objections, you cannot go straight to court. CCP Section 2016.040 requires a genuine, good-faith attempt to resolve the dispute informally in person, by phone, or by videoconference. A letter by itself does not satisfy the requirement, and courts enforce it.
If meet-and-confer fails, file a motion to compel further responses under CCP Section 2030.300. The motion has to be filed within 45 days of receiving the inadequate response. Miss that window and the right to compel further answers on those interrogatories is gone. The motion must include a separate statement under California Rules of Court Rule 3.1345 that lays out each disputed interrogatory, the response received, and the legal and factual reasons a better answer is needed.
The court will impose monetary sanctions against whichever side loses, unless the losing side acted with substantial justification. Sanctions under CCP Section 2023.030 cover “reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees” caused by the discovery misuse; the amount depends on the attorney time spent on the dispute. If a party then defies a court order compelling answers, the consequences escalate to issue, evidence, or terminating sanctions.
Supplemental Interrogatories Later in the Case
Discovery does not freeze after the first round. New witnesses appear, records arrive, and documents produced by the employer raise new questions. California allows supplemental interrogatories to capture information that came into existence after the original responses were served. You can propound them twice before the first trial date is set and once more after that date is set without needing court permission. Additional rounds require a motion showing good cause.