His Failure To Stipulate Did Not Show Bad Faith Under The Circumstances And The Awarded Sanctions Were Not Tethered To Any Specific Conduct.
Family Code section 271 does allow for monetary “sanctions” against a family law litigant who tries to not foster resolution and makes the proceedings more expensive. However, they are not a general “penal” punishment for every type of decision made by a litigant.
That is typified by Marriage of Hoch, Case No. G063467 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Feb. 17, 2026; posted Feb. 18, 2026) (unpublished). There, a $35,000 Family Code section 271 sanctions award against ex-husband was reversed for two reasons. First, he refused to stipulate to allow a legal separation petition amended to become a marital dissolution petition based on religious grounds, with the appellate court finding this was not an unreasonable position (but not having to get into the merits of the religious decision). Second, the sanctions award consisted of $20,000 for a generalized amount with no explanation, which meant the award was not tethered to truly target the stipulation issue.