§ 2034.630.Monetary sanctions; exception

This section closes out the opening stretch of Article 4 with the same mandatory fee-shifting rule that runs through Chapter 18's other motion provisions. Whoever loses a motion to augment or amend expert witness information, whether that is the party who moved for leave and failed, or the party who opposed the motion and lost, faces a monetary sanction under Chapter 7, the discovery act's general sanctions provisions.

The sanction is not optional once a party loses the motion; the statute directs the court to impose it. The only way out is a finding that the losing side acted with substantial justification, meaning its position on the motion was reasonable even though it did not prevail, or a finding that other circumstances make imposing a sanction unjust under the particular facts. Those exceptions give the court room to withhold the sanction in a close case, but the default outcome, built into the statute's own wording, is that losing this motion costs money.