Civil procedure
Sanctions
Sanctions are penalties a court imposes on a party or lawyer for filing something baseless, violating an order, or abusing the litigation process.
Rule 11 covers frivolous filings and comes with a safe harbor: the moving party must serve the motion and give the other side twenty-one days to withdraw the offending paper before filing it with the court. Discovery misconduct is sanctioned under a separate rule, and courts also have inherent authority for bad faith.
Penalties escalate. They start with fee-shifting and warnings and can reach striking pleadings, adverse inference instructions to the jury, default, or dismissal of the case entirely.
Sanctions orders are worth reading whoever you represent. They are usually detailed, name the conduct precisely, and function as the court's public statement of what it will not tolerate in future cases.
How it appears on a docket
ORDER granting 74 Motion for Sanctions. Defendant shall pay plaintiff's reasonable fees incurred in bringing the motion to compel.
Governing rule
Fed. R. Civ. P. 11, 37
Related terms
- Motion to Compel — A motion to compel asks the judge to order another party to answer discovery or produce documents it has withheld.
- Spoliation — Spoliation is the destruction or loss of evidence that a party had a duty to preserve for litigation.
More on civil procedure
See this term in a real case
Search federal court records and read the filings where sanctions actually shows up. New to federal dockets? Start with how to find a federal case.