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Texas Code of Criminal Procedure - Article 1.052. Signed Pleadings Of Defendant

Legal Research Home > Texas Lawyer > Code of Criminal Procedure > Texas Code of Criminal Procedure - Article 1.052. Signed Pleadings Of Defendant

Art. 1.052. SIGNED PLEADINGS OF DEFENDANT.  (a) A pleading, 
motion, and other paper filed for or on behalf of a defendant 
represented by an attorney must be signed by at least one attorney 
of record in the attorney's name and state the attorney's address.  
A defendant who is not represented by an attorney must sign any 
pleading, motion, or other paper filed for or on the defendant's 
behalf and state the defendant's address.
	(b)  The signature of an attorney or a defendant constitutes 
a certificate by the attorney or defendant that the person has read 
the pleading, motion, or other paper and that to the best of the 
person's knowledge, information, and belief formed after 
reasonable inquiry that the instrument is not groundless and 
brought in bad faith or groundless and brought for harassment, 
unnecessary delay, or other improper purpose.
	(c)  If a pleading, motion, or other paper is not signed, the 
court shall strike it unless it is signed promptly after the 
omission is called to the attention of the attorney or defendant.
	(d)  An attorney or defendant who files a fictitious pleading 
in a cause for an improper purpose described by Subsection (b) or 
who makes a statement in a pleading that the attorney or defendant 
knows to be groundless and false to obtain a delay of the trial of 
the cause or for the purpose of harassment shall be held guilty of 
contempt.
	(e)  If a pleading, motion, or other paper is signed in 
violation of this article, the court, on motion or on its own 
initiative, after notice and hearing, shall impose an appropriate 
sanction, which may include an order to pay to the other party or 
parties to the prosecution or to the general fund of the county in 
which the pleading, motion, or other paper was filed the amount of 
reasonable expenses incurred because of the filing of the pleading, 
motion, or other paper, including reasonable attorney's fees.
	(f)  A court shall presume that a pleading, motion, or other 
paper is filed in good faith.  Sanctions under this article may not 
be imposed except for good cause stated in the sanction order.
	(g)  A plea of "not guilty" or "no contest" or "nolo 
contendere" does not constitute a violation of this article.  An 
allegation that an event took place or occurred on or about a 
particular date does not constitute a violation of this article.
	(h)  In this article, "groundless" means without basis in law 
or fact and not warranted by a good faith argument for the 
extension, modification, or reversal of existing law.

Added by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 189, Sec. 11, eff. May 21, 1997.           

Last modified: August 10, 2007