Rule 11.Signing and verification of pleadings.

Rule 11(a) requires at least one attorney of record — signing in an individual capacity, not the firm’s name — or, if a party has no attorney, the party personally, to sign every pleading, motion, and other paper, and to state an address. An unsigned paper is stricken unless it is signed promptly once the omission is pointed out.

The signature itself is a certification: that the signer has read the paper; that, to the best of the signer’s knowledge, information, and belief formed after reasonable inquiry, it is well grounded in fact and warranted by existing law or a good-faith argument to extend, modify, or reverse existing law; and that it is not filed for an improper purpose such as harassment, delay, or needlessly increasing the cost of litigation. A violation of that certification requires the court, on motion or on its own initiative, to impose an appropriate sanction on the signer, the represented party, or both, which may include the reasonable expenses — including attorney’s fees — the violation caused another party to incur.

Rule 11 also addresses verification, which is required only when another rule or a statute calls for it. A verified pleading states, in substance, that its contents are true to the signer’s knowledge, except matters stated on information and belief, which the signer believes to be true; a party ordinarily verifies personally, though an agent or attorney may verify instead when the claim or defense rests on a written instrument for the payment of money in the signer’s possession, or when the material allegations are within the agent’s or attorney’s own personal knowledge. A corporation verifies through an officer or managing or local agent, and the State verifies through any person acquainted with the facts.