When are a Florida defendant’s interrogatory answers due for a request served with process?

Identify the actual interrogatories, recipient and prescribed type of response.

Preserve actual service of the request together with process and the initial pleading on this defendant. Filing is a different event.

Read every order, applicable stipulation, service method and historical procedural edition.

1. Identify the actual interrogatories, recipient and prescribed type of response.
2. Rule 1.090(a) incorporates Rule 2.514(a). Exclude the established event. For seven days or longer, begin with the next day that is not Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday. Count intermediate calendar days. For fewer than seven days, omit intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. Do not treat a seven-day period as seven business days.
3. Check the observed statutory holidays, actual clerk calendar and chief-justice directions.
4. Complete the required act with the proper court or recipient.

Apply the observed New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day holidays. Section 110.117 observes Saturday holidays on the preceding Friday and Sunday holidays on the following Monday. Rule 2.514 also includes clerk-observed holidays and days designated by the chief justice or chief judge. An ineligible final day moves in the counting direction. The bundled Florida calendar covers 2026 through 2028. Verify additional closures and chief-justice extensions separately.

Fictitious example

Fictitious facts. The properly signed identified request is validly served with process and the initial pleading on this defendant. No different ordered time applies. The established event occurs August 2, 2027. No mail-only addition, additional clerk holiday or different actual order applies.

Fictitious facts. Establish the stated procedure and actual event separately. No mail-only addition, further clerk holiday, tolling motion, chief-justice extension or different actual court order is assumed.

An actual court-allowed period controls

Rule 1.340(a)(9) preserves court authority to shorten or extend the stated time. Read the actual order and its triggering event. A requested extension, agreement lacking the required legal effect or pending motion does not itself establish a different response date.

Untimely or nonspecific objections can be waived

Rule 1.340(a)(7)–(8) requires specific grounds and reasons. An unstated timely objection ground is waived unless the court excuses the failure for good cause. A generic reservation of objections does not establish compliance.

The number, approved forms and scope matter

Rule 1.340(a)(3) ordinarily limits interrogatories to thirty including subparts, absent the stated court permission after motion, notice and good cause. Applicable approved forms govern initial questions on covered subjects. Rule 1.280(c) controls discovery scope, and a contention question is not objectionable merely for seeking an opinion or information outside personal knowledge.

A records answer has substantive conditions

Rule 1.340(c) permits the records option only when deriving the answer imposes substantially the same burden on each party. Identify the records in sufficient detail or an assisting representative, and provide the reasonable opportunity to examine and copy. Referring vaguely to an entire file does not establish those conditions.

Incomplete answers can lead to a court motion

Rules 1.340(a)(10) and 1.380(a) permit the actual motion procedure concerning objections or a failure to answer. Rule 1.380(a)(3) treats an evasive or incomplete answer as a failure. Court orders and sanctions require their own procedure; the date alone establishes neither.

Current disclosure sequencing concerns seeking discovery

Rule 1.280(f)(1), effective June 19, 2025, requires this party to serve initial disclosures on the other party before seeking discovery, except as authorized by stipulation or court order. It does not itself replace a served request’s response period with sixty days or permit a recipient to ignore the request. Check the actual covered proceeding, historical initial-disclosure exception, stipulation, protective order and request separately.

Signing, supplementation and court filing are separate duties

Rule 1.280(k) requires the prescribed attorney or unrepresented-party signature and certification after reasonable inquiry. Rule 1.280(g) requires timely supplementation or correction when its stated conditions arise. Rule 1.280(h) generally withholds discovery information from court filing without good cause established by another rule or order. The current rule imposes no duty to act on an unsigned disclosure, request, response or objection until signed. SC2025-1053, issued October 1, 2026 and effective January 1, 2027 at 12:01 a.m., adds mandatory striking unless the missing signature is promptly supplied after the omission is brought to the attorney’s or party’s attention. The 2027 examples assume properly signed requests. A completed date does not establish complete answers or proper filing.

• This page does not establish valid service, pleading sufficiency, waived defenses or permission to extend a period.
• Check the governing historical edition, actual motions, orders, clerk holidays and filing receipts.

• Identify the actual interrogatories, recipient and prescribed type of response.
• Preserve actual service of the request together with process and the initial pleading on this defendant. Filing is a different event.
• Read every order, applicable stipulation, service method and historical procedural edition.
• Rule 1.340(a)(9) preserves court authority to shorten or extend the stated time. Read the actual order and its triggering event. A requested extension, agreement lacking the required legal effect or pending motion does not itself establish a different response date.
• Rule 1.340(a)(7)–(8) requires specific grounds and reasons. An unstated timely objection ground is waived unless the court excuses the failure for good cause. A generic reservation of objections does not establish compliance.
• Rule 1.340(a)(3) ordinarily limits interrogatories to thirty including subparts, absent the stated court permission after motion, notice and good cause. Applicable approved forms govern initial questions on covered subjects. Rule 1.280(c) controls discovery scope, and a contention question is not objectionable merely for seeking an opinion or information outside personal knowledge.
• Rule 1.340(c) permits the records option only when deriving the answer imposes substantially the same burden on each party. Identify the records in sufficient detail or an assisting representative, and provide the reasonable opportunity to examine and copy. Referring vaguely to an entire file does not establish those conditions.
• Rules 1.340(a)(10) and 1.380(a) permit the actual motion procedure concerning objections or a failure to answer. Rule 1.380(a)(3) treats an evasive or incomplete answer as a failure. Court orders and sanctions require their own procedure; the date alone establishes neither.
• Rule 1.280(f)(1), effective June 19, 2025, requires this party to serve initial disclosures on the other party before seeking discovery, except as authorized by stipulation or court order. It does not itself replace a served request’s response period with sixty days or permit a recipient to ignore the request. Check the actual covered proceeding, historical initial-disclosure exception, stipulation, protective order and request separately.
• Rule 1.280(k) requires the prescribed attorney or unrepresented-party signature and certification after reasonable inquiry. Rule 1.280(g) requires timely supplementation or correction when its stated conditions arise. Rule 1.280(h) generally withholds discovery information from court filing without good cause established by another rule or order. The current rule imposes no duty to act on an unsigned disclosure, request, response or objection until signed. SC2025-1053, issued October 1, 2026 and effective January 1, 2027 at 12:01 a.m., adds mandatory striking unless the missing signature is promptly supplied after the omission is brought to the attorney’s or party’s attention. The 2027 examples assume properly signed requests. A completed date does not establish complete answers or proper filing.
• Serve the actual sworn answers and any properly signed specific objections on the propounding party, with copies on all other parties under Rule 1.340(e)(3). Preserve the interrogatories, response and actual service evidence. Paragraph (e)(2) separately requires the requesting party’s filed service certificate with service date and recipient name. Paragraph (e)(4) does not ordinarily require filing the answers; Rules 2.425 and 1.280(h), and an actual court direction, control when court consideration requires filing. Rule 1.080(a) applies Rule 2.516 to pleadings after the initial pleading and other prescribed documents. Establish each required recipient and service method. Email service is complete when sent. Portal service is complete on filing for listed recipients, subject to promptly serving a recipient known not to have received the document. Permitted mail service is complete on mailing and delivery on delivery. Rule 2.514(b) adds five days after the otherwise computed expiration only when the act is measured after service and service was made only by mail. Email or portal service does not automatically add five days. Original process, actual receipt and court-order filing are distinct events. The service-based calculator examples exclude mail-only service.