A motion for Family Code 271 sanctions in California is filed on Judicial Council Form FL-300 (Request for Order), supported by a declaration that ties specific uncooperative conduct by the other party to specific attorney’s fees you paid because of it. You attach billing records and a current Income and Expense Declaration, serve the papers at least 16 court days before the hearing, and appear to argue that the conduct frustrated settlement and that the fees you’re asking for are reasonable in amount. Financial need is not part of the test; the sanction turns on the other side’s behavior.
What Family Code 271 Sanctions Are For
Family Code 271 lets a judge order one party, or their attorney, to pay the other side’s attorney’s fees and costs as a penalty for conduct that frustrates the policy of promoting settlement and reducing litigation costs. It applies in divorce, legal separation, parentage, and domestic partnership proceedings, and it reaches lawyers as well as clients.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 271 – Attorneys Fees and Costs
This is not the same as a need-based fee award under Family Code 2030. Under section 271 you do not have to show you cannot afford your own lawyer. A well-resourced spouse who ran up fees dealing with the other side’s obstruction can still recover them as a sanction.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 271 – Attorneys Fees and Costs
The statute limits how the award is collected. Any sanction is payable only from the sanctioned party’s separate property, their income, or their share of community property. It cannot come out of your share of the community estate.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 271 – Attorneys Fees and Costs
Conduct That Supports a Section 271 Motion
The behavior has to be objectively unreasonable in a way that drove up litigation costs or blocked settlement. It does not have to be malicious, and losing a motion or having a legal position rejected is not enough on its own. Courts have imposed sanctions for conduct such as:
- Failing to respond to discovery, withholding documents and then producing them at trial, or refusing to cooperate in getting records from third parties like banks.
- Violating court orders, including refinancing or trying to sell community property in defiance of restraining orders, or ignoring a court-ordered accounting.
- Failing to serve preliminary or final declarations of disclosure or providing incomplete financial information. Family Code 2107 separately authorizes sanctions for disclosure violations, and courts sometimes award under both.2California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2107 – Sanctions for Noncompliance with Disclosure Requirements
- Ignoring settlement offers, canceling mediation at the last minute, or taking positions with no factual or legal basis.
- Filing meritless motions or relitigating issues the court already decided.
Courts look at patterns, not one-off incidents. Every allegation in your motion should be pinned to a date, a document, or an event the record can verify.
Documents You File
The motion is a package. Each piece has a job, and a weak declaration or missing financial disclosure is the most common reason judges cut a sanctions request or deny it outright.
Request for Order (FL-300)
FL-300 is the standard form for asking a family court for any order during a pending case. Check the box for attorney’s fees and costs and state Family Code 271 as the legal basis. Be specific about the section you are relying on; a request that reads as a generic fee motion can be treated as a need-based request under a different statute.3California Courts. Request for Order FL-300
Supporting Declaration
Your declaration is the case. Use the declaration pages built into FL-300, Attachment FL-310, or a separately typed declaration. Whichever format you use, write facts, not adjectives. Instead of saying the other party has been uncooperative, describe what happened, when it happened, and what it cost. For each incident, connect it to a specific block of attorney time and a dollar figure.
Judges see many of these. The declarations that work are the ones that make the chain plain: this act on this date forced this work by counsel at this rate, for this cost. Complaints about tone or attitude, without dollars attached, rarely produce awards.
Attorney Billing Records
Attach itemized billing statements as exhibits. The invoices should let the judge see which entries correspond to the sanctionable conduct. If your attorney prepared three hours for a deposition the other side canceled without justification the day before, that entry should be identifiable on its face. Lump-sum invoices that blur sanctionable work with routine case work give the court a reason to reduce the award.
Income and Expense Declaration (FL-150)
Section 271 requires the judge to consider both parties’ incomes, assets, and liabilities before imposing a sanction, and to avoid an award that would be an unreasonable financial burden on the person being sanctioned.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 271 – Attorneys Fees and Costs File a current FL-150 with your motion. You are not proving your own need, but the court still needs a full financial picture from both sides. Skipping this step gives the judge a reason to deny or reduce the request.
Serving and Filing the Motion
Under Code of Civil Procedure 1005, moving papers must be served and filed at least 16 court days before the hearing. If you serve by mail within California, add five calendar days. Mail to or from an address outside California but within the United States adds ten calendar days. Overnight delivery, fax, or electronic service adds two calendar days.4California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 1005 – Written Notice of Motion and Supporting Papers Court days exclude weekends and court holidays; the extension days are calendar days. Count carefully.
You can serve by personal delivery or by mail. If the other party is represented, serve the attorney. The person who serves the papers must be at least 18 and not a party to the case, so you cannot serve them yourself. Your server then completes a Proof of Service: Form FL-330 for personal service, Form FL-335 for service by mail.5Judicial Council of California. Proof of Personal Service – FL-3306Judicial Council of California. Proof of Service by Mail – FL-335
File the original FL-300, all declarations and exhibits, and the completed Proof of Service with the clerk. A filing fee applies for motions requiring a hearing, generally around $60 depending on the court. If you cannot afford the fee, apply for a fee waiver.
The Other Side’s Response
Section 271 requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before any sanction can be imposed.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 271 – Attorneys Fees and Costs The opposing party will typically file a Responsive Declaration on Form FL-320, generally due at least nine court days before the hearing under CCP 1005.7California Courts. Responsive Declaration to Request for Order FL-320
Expect arguments that the conduct was reasonable in context, that it did not actually cause the fees you’re claiming, that the billing is inflated, or that paying would be an unreasonable burden. The other party will usually file their own FL-150. Build your hearing arguments around those counterpoints. For each fee entry, be ready to explain which act of misconduct made it necessary.
At the Hearing
The judge looks at three questions. Was the conduct objectively unreasonable? Did it frustrate the policy of promoting settlement and reducing litigation costs? Are the fees requested actually tied to that conduct and reasonable in amount?
Discretion is broad, and partial awards are common. Where the fees you claim overlap with work your lawyer would have done anyway, the court will carve that portion out. The judge is not required to grant the full amount and often makes an independent determination of what portion of the fees flowed from the misconduct.
Before setting any number, the judge weighs both parties’ incomes, assets, and liabilities and confirms the sanction will not impose an unreasonable financial burden.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 271 – Attorneys Fees and Costs This is where the Income and Expense Declarations from both sides matter. A court can find conduct clearly sanctionable and still reduce the award because the paying party cannot realistically cover the full amount.
How the Award Is Paid and Enforced
A section 271 award is payable only from the sanctioned party’s separate property, income, or share of community property, never from your community share.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 271 – Attorneys Fees and Costs In practice, the judge may deduct the sanction from that party’s share of the property division. If the marital home will be sold and the proceeds divided, the court can reduce the sanctioned party’s share by the sanction amount. The court can also order a direct cash payment by a set date.
If the other party does not pay voluntarily, the award is enforceable as a money judgment. You can record an Abstract of Judgment (Form EJ-001) with the county recorder in any county where the debtor owns real property, creating a lien that must be satisfied before sale, transfer, or refinance.8Judicial Council of California. Instructions – Abstract of Judgment Because a 271 sanction is not a support obligation, wage garnishment is capped at the ordinary money-judgment limits: the lesser of 25 percent of the debtor’s weekly disposable earnings, or 50 percent of the amount by which those earnings exceed 40 times the applicable minimum hourly wage.9California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 706050 – Wage Garnishment Limits A writ of execution lets the sheriff or marshal levy on non-exempt property such as bank accounts.
Collection can take time when the sanctioned party has few reachable assets, but a recorded lien sits on their real property until it is dealt with, which typically means the next sale or refinance forces payment.