§ 9.013.Report to Grievance Committee

The referral provision, and three conditions must all be met before it operates.

The court shall report its finding to an appropriate grievance committee where a sanction is imposed under Section 9.012, the offending party is represented by an attorney who signed the pleading in violation of the standards, and the court finds that the attorney has consistently engaged in activity that results in sanctions.

The third condition is the demanding one, and it is deliberate. A single sanctioned pleading does not reach the grievance system; a practice of them does.

"Consistently" requires a finding about the attorney’s conduct beyond the case in hand, which a court will usually have no occasion to make unless the pattern is before it.

Once all three conditions hold, the report is mandatory. The court has no discretion to decline it.

The report must contain four things: the attorney’s name; the finding that the pleading was signed in violation of the standards; a description of the sanctions imposed on the signatory and the offending party; and the finding of consistent sanctionable activity.

The referral reaches out of state. Where the attorney practises elsewhere, the report goes to the equivalent body in the jurisdiction where the attorney resides.

Read this against the preceding section’s closing subsection. That subsection says determinations under the chapter are no basis for a grievance other than as expressly provided in this chapter — and this section is that express provision.

So the chapter is closed to collateral use, with one deliberate opening for the repeat offender.