After answering a summons and complaint, Mike received a set of written questions from the plaintiff's attorney. He was directed to respond to the questions in writing under oath. This discovery technique is called?

Interrogatories

Explanation:

Interrogatories refer to Written questions submitted to a party from another party in which the responses of the latter should be the truth and complete and made under oath in order to clarify matters of fact and help to determine what facts will be presented at any trial in the court.

Interrogatories can be used to one's advantage by

obtaining their testimonies under oath to impeach their claim should their story change during court trial

---Keeping evidence if the other party to testify at trial is not available due to death.

The downside of Interrogatories is that

It leads to disputes especially if your adversary party refuses to answer your questions

---Tere are Limitations on the type of questions a party can ask another and number the number of interrogatories you can send to the adversary party.

-- If you're representing yourself,

the adversary attorney may take advantage of your ignorance to drag the discovery process so as to slow your progress and afford you to spend additional time and effort on research to gather facts to counter adversary's tactics.

can you explain it better

answer; negative punishment;