Home > Research Legal Advice > Litigation > We have no money to pay a $4500 sanction for losing a motion to compel f...
Asked about 1 year ago - Monterey, CA
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We lost a motion to compel a deposition motion. The motion was filed in response to our request for a postponement 6 days before the depo due to excessive pain for back injury and because my teeth had been pulled out and I was waiting for my dentures. The motion requested I travel to Monterey and pay sanctions.
The motion to compel was filed 4 days after my request was made. We lost and were forced to travel 450 miles away even though we told the judge that we had no money. The judge postponed awarding sanctions however one week after we returned from the 2 day depo, we received a $4500 sanction. We have 0 income and our attorney said that we don't have to pay it. Now they are demanding it even though we lost the hearing all together. Can we do anything?
In California, a sanctions order is enforceable in the same way as a "money judgment". In other words, a writ of execution may be issued by the court and levied on the property of the person sanctioned. (See Code of Civil Procedure sections 680.230, 680.270, 699.510; Newland v. Sup.Ct. (Sugasawara) (1995) 40 Cal.App.4th 608, 615.)
However, if you have no income and no assets, there isn't much the other side can do to collect the sanctions award.
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