Sanctions and conduct
What the court can do to you personally, what you have to report, and what you can do about the other side.
The sequence
- On learningThe duty to correct startsIt runs from knowledge. There is no motion you are entitled to wait for.
- Serve only21-day safe harborServed and not filed. Filing it on day one is how the motion dies.
- +21 daysFile it if nothing is withdrawnLocation picks the statute. Discovery, a filed paper and a violated order are three different ones.
- On order30-day self-reportReportable discipline has its own clock, and it does not wait for the appeal.
- MediationEffectively unreachableConduct inside a mediation is the one place the sanctions machinery does not go.
This sequence is the shape of the stage, not a calculator. Dates come from calcourtdeadlines.com.
Guides in this stage2
- Sanctioning obstructive opposing counselWhere the conduct happened picks the statute, and picking wrong is usually not curable once the safe harbor has run. Conduct inside a mediation is effectively unreachable.
- You cited a hallucinated case. Now what?The correction is yours to make from the moment you learn of it. Five published California sanctions, $1,500 to $10,000, and the 30-day self-report.