Requests for Admission
(NC)

Summary

This template requests for admission (RFA) is for use in civil cases in North Carolina state court. You can customize it to the specific facts of your case. The template includes practical guidance, drafting notes, and an optional clause. RFAs are perhaps the least frequently utilized discovery method but, when properly used, can effectively limit the factual issues at trial. Typically, RFAs are the last form of discovery used, because they are most useful only after all the information in the case has been compiled, and you are shifting your focus toward a trial or a summary judgment motion. Rule 36 permits the filing of a request for admission upon the plaintiff any time after commencement of the action, and any other party may be served with or after service of the summons and complaint. N.C. R. Civ. P. 36(a). Requests for admission, however, are generally filed much later in the pretrial phase of the case. Requests for admission can effectively serve their purpose of narrowing the issues especially if there has been some development of the factual record through other discovery. Rule 36 is unique among the discovery methods because it is not so much a fact gathering device as it is a procedure for forcing a party to commit to the veracity of certain facts, opinions, or conclusions which have been uncovered through the other discovery methods. Requests for admission are particularly helpful to the party whose case depends largely upon a huge volume of documents. Authenticating such records through admissions by the opposing party will go a long way toward proving such a case at trial, and there is little an opponent can do to avoid admitting the genuineness of records in good faith, especially if the opponent authored the documents. Hence, this rule is well adapted to cases involving: • Claims on an indebtedness evidenced in writing • Contract claims or commercial disputes involving a large number of business records –and– • Any other suit in which the evidence is largely documentary Requests for admission are of less value in personal injury or other non-commercial tort claims where the evidence is essentially a swearing match between eyewitnesses. In such instances, requests under this rule may do little to focus the dispute or reduce the issues for trial. Rule 36(a) allows a party to request another party to admit certain facts for purposes of the pending action. The requests can touch on any matters within the scope of discovery. N.C. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). For example, you can request that the responding party admit to the genuineness of documents. N.C. R. Civ. P. 36(a). If the party to whom the requests are directed fails to respond within 30 days after service of the request, the requests are deemed admitted. N.C. R. Civ. P. 36(a). You should serve an RFA as you would any other discovery document. N.C. R. Civ. P. 5(a). For more information on requests for admission, see Requests for Admission: Drafting and Serving RFAs (NC) and Requests for Admission: Responding to RFAs (NC). For a related template, see Objections and Responses to Requests for Admissions (NC).