Sunday, August 22, 2010

New York Needs To Enact Legislation To Curb Vexatious Pro Se Litigants.



California, Florida, Texas, Hawaii, and Ohio have all adopted statutes to curb vexatious litigation. All five states have procedures by which litigants can be declared vexatious. All have a range of remedies: a vexatious litigant may be required to post a bond for the defendant’s costs and fees before an action can be commenced, or a judge can make a pre-filing order under which the litigant is restrained from filing any further actions unless and until leave is given by a judge. And in each case, failure to abide by the statute is punishable by contempt of court. 




“Vexatious conduct” means conduct of a party in a civil action that satisfies any of the following: (a) The conduct obviously serves merely to harass or maliciously injure another party to the civil action. (b) The conduct is not warranted under existing law and cannot be supported by a good faith argument for an extension, modification, or reversal of existing law. (c) The conduct is imposed solely for delay. See, Vexatious Pro Se Civil Litigants in the Massachusetts Courts by J. Caleb Donaldson, Harvard University, Harvard Law School, 2006.



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