Requests for admissions are under used and under appreciated in wrongful termination and employment discrimination cases. Discovery can be plagued with defendants giving non-responsive answers to written interrogatories and evasive answers to deposition questions. Requests for admissions effectively eliminate the defendant's ability to dance around the facts in the case. The defendant is forced to either admit or deny facts. Furthermore, a request for admission can properly require the defendant to admit to matters relating to the application of law to fact. By having the defendant admit or deny matters of fact or matters involving fact and law, the triable issues in the case are narrowed. Responses to the requests for admissions are binding. In other words, an admission is comparable to an admission in pleadings as opposed to an evidentiary admission of a party. So the next time a defendant dances around the facts or dances around the application of the law to the facts, send out the requests for admissions and then watch the defendant's dancing come to a halt.
