§ 10.005.Order

A drafting requirement for the order, and it does more work than its length suggests.

A court shall describe in an order imposing a sanction the conduct the court has determined violated Section 10.001 and explain the basis for the sanction imposed.

Two obligations, and they are separate. Describing the conduct answers what the person did; explaining the basis answers why this particular sanction followed.

The second is where orders most often fall short. A court that identifies a violation and then awards a sum without connecting the two has not explained the basis, and the chapter requires the connection.

The requirement exists because the governing principle is otherwise unreviewable. Sanctions must be limited to what will deter repetition, and an appellate court cannot assess that against a bare order.

It also disciplines the decision itself. A judge required to write down which certification was violated and why the chosen sanction fits is required to work through both questions.

The specificity runs through the whole chapter. A motion must describe the specific conduct, a show cause order must describe it, the respondent must be told what is alleged, and the final order must describe it again.

For the sanctioned person the order is the record. It is what an appellate court reviews, what a future court sees, and what the person carries — so what it says, and does not say, matters beyond the case.