Washington v. Gassman
Annotate this Case"A trial court must have authority to manage the parties and proceedings before it." The State argued the trial court in this case erroneously imposed sanctions in a criminal prosecution without explicitly finding bad faith. "While a finding of bad faith is the preferred basis for imposing sanctions in a criminal case, [the Supreme Court] will uphold sanctions if [it] can infer bad faith from the record . . . The trial court in this case did not make a finding of bad faith and, given concessions at oral argument, the record did not support sanctions. The Court therefore reversed.
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