§ 2034.730.Monetary sanctions; exception

This section closes out Article 4's sanctions scheme for expert-witness discovery by attaching a financial consequence to losing the tardy-disclosure motion authorized in Section 2034.710. Whoever loses, whether that is the party that asked for leave to submit late expert information and did not get it, or the party that fought the request and lost, faces a monetary sanction under the general sanctions chapter, Chapter 7.

That sanction is not automatic in every sense; the court still has an escape hatch. It need not impose the sanction if it finds that the losing side acted with substantial justification, meaning the position taken, win or lose, was a reasonable one to argue, or if the circumstances of the case make a sanction unjust for some other reason. But those are the only two ways out. Absent one of them, the statute uses mandatory language, the court shall impose the sanction, not may, which puts real financial risk behind bringing or opposing this kind of motion without a solid basis.