A motion for sanctions asks a court to impose a penalty for conduct that violates procedural rules or a court order — refusing to comply with discovery, destroying evidence (spoliation), filing something for an improper purpose, or misrepresenting facts to the court. Available sanctions range widely: monetary penalties, cost-shifting, evidentiary sanctions (barring certain evidence or arguments), adverse-inference instructions, striking pleadings, or, in severe cases, dismissal or default.

Courts generally require the sanction to be proportionate to the misconduct, and many sanctions frameworks require notice and an opportunity to be heard before anything is imposed. Discovery-specific sanctions typically follow a documented history of noncompliance — an isolated, promptly-cured mistake is treated very differently from a pattern of evasion or destruction after a duty to preserve arose.

Juricratic surfaces a pending or granted sanctions motion as a flagged event on the matter timeline rather than folding it silently into the general procedural history, because sanctions exposure — cost awards, adverse inferences, even claim-preclusive outcomes — can shift a simulated case's expected value independently of the underlying merits.

Counsel bring sanctions motions to punish and deter discovery gamesmanship or evidence destruction, and to obtain remedial relief (like an adverse-inference instruction) when the misconduct has genuinely prejudiced their ability to prove or defend the case. Facing a credible sanctions motion is also a serious settlement pressure point, since it can taint how the rest of the case, and the responsible party's credibility, is perceived.