Who May Impose Sanctions?

• A party against whom a frivolous pleading has been filed can petition the court for the sanction of attorney's fees, or the court on its own may impose sanctions on the party who filed the bad faith pleading.
  
  

Function

• Under the federal rules, prior to filing a pleading on behalf of a client, an attorney by signing his name implicitly acknowledges that there is a good faith basis for filing the pleading and that it is not being filed for improper purposes.
  
  

Considerations

• Pleadings that are filed in order to unreasonably delay proceedings or done purely for dilatory purposes are subject to the rule.
  
  

Identification

• A frivolous lawsuit is one filed with no reasonable basis in fact or law such that the party filing the suit has failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.
  
  

Types

• Many states have incorporated the federal rule on sacntions for frivolous lawsuits within their own rules of civil procedure.