How much is too much? Vexatious litigant.

[HopLittleBunny]

How many times can someone apply to the family court and be rebuffed before the respondent can apply to have them classed as vexatious and what does that actually mean? Are they completely barred from applying again, or do they just have to apply for permission to apply? Of its the permission, would the court notify the respondent of the request for permission even if it is refused it?

Would one application and two instances of writing to the judge which were all found to be without merit be enough to qualify as vexatious? Can history and information from other arenas such as the police re harassment charges being sought or victim support services be used as supplementary evidence to show a pattern of abusive behaviour or are these things kept separately for the court system in the same way civil court things can't be used for the harassment evidence?

My friend is having quite a time of it with her ex and is hoping to minimise the amount of trouble he can stir up for her, but has no funds for a solicitor so doesn't want to apply if the threshold hasn't been met. She also doesn't know if she would have to pay for the VL hearing, how much it might be and what form that would take. Thanks.

Generally, one application and two letters would not be enough. Harassment other than via hopeless applications would be relevant, but not conclusive.

Your friend might like to look at section 91(14) of the Children Act 1989. This article sets out the approach that the courts take. 'Vexatious litigants' usually refers to civil law not family law.

it is regarded as 'draconian' and a 'last resort' to limit someone's right to apply to court, and if granted, it means that any future applications go through a filter by the judge first before the other party is told about them.

Can your friend not get a free half hour with a solicitor to see where she stands with this? Is it just the court system that is being abused or is he harassing her otherwise as well?

Would she have enough for a non molestation order?

Ah right. So I've been looking up the wrong sort of law for her? Whoops, thanks for the heads up.

Is there anything she can do to pre-empt or stop any more groundless applications to the court then or is it just a case of wait and see then deal with any application that might get made? I've been helping her by doing a bit of reading on things because everything has been getting overwhelming for her. I think she'd feel a lot better if she could be proactive instead of always waiting to see what her ex will do next, then having to take time off work, arrange childcare and find out what she's meant to do and how.

She can't pre-empt. Best just to keep gathering evidence and wait for his next application. She can make her application for the s91(14) order as part of those proceedings.

Nacho this has rumbled on for a couple of years now and as she hasn't been able to afford a solicitor for the last year or so, I think she's been round the couple of solicitors in our area who offer a free half hour for the last application and first letter to the court.

Her ex used to be physically and verbally abusive during handover at contact, although never taking it far enough to report him. That stopped a while back when my friend refused to take calls (she emails instead) and insisted that handover be in a public place. He's been stalking her around the Internet for years, made a malicious police report against her and posted anonymous print outs of things he found by hacking her online accounts. So far, none of those things are enough or can proven to be him to have enough evidence for a charge of harassment. I'm not sure where she stands with a non molestation order, although I guess she would have to pay and put the case for that herself?

Bloody hell your friend seems to be going through a time of it. All those things you said eventually add up so tell her to keep a record of all emails as any sign of abuse in those can be used too. Tell her to keep a log of everything, no matter how small. Has he sent ripples in the water that give her reason to be worried about the same application going back to court?

I'm just wondering if it may be your friend stressing about what's next because of the obvious hell she's been through?

On the civil side, if a litigant has three court orders expressed to be "wholly without merit" then the file(s) are sent to the local designated Civil Judge (Senior Circuit judge) (if in the county court) or any High Court Judge (if in the high court) who will consider making a civil restraint order against the litigant. There are various "strengths" of CRO but generally it means they cannot bring litigation or make any applications without the HCJ/DCJs permission. It does not stop them from defending any claim or action however. DCJs very often make those orders if asked to, less common in the high court but still regularly made. Nobody officially counts up "wholly without merit" orders however - if they are all made in one set of proceedings then a judge may notice and send the file or sometimes a litigant will point out that there are lots of orders made in different proceedings and ask for consideration to be given to making one.

On the family side it is less structured in my experience. If a litigant is bring a real pain in family proceedings and making lots of applications then the judge dealing with him may make an order saying "no further applications in respect of the children without my permission" or if he is a pain over multiple proceedings the Designated Family Judge/High Court judge may get involved. The onus is less, generally speaking, on whether the litigant is a time wasting pain and more on whether his repeated applications are causing damage to the children eg by not allowing contact to settle down or using the cost of repeated court appearances as a weapon limiting funds available to be used for the benefit of the children for eg. On the civil side it is more about protecting the public from pointless misconceived litigation.

hTH.

All the court related parts were in theory about the same set of proceedings, apart from possibly the last letter. My friend hasn't a clue what that is about yet. She hasn't had a notification of a court date about it at least. That one was quite recent though so that is what has sparked her off wanting to find out what is going on and if she can put preventative measures in place.

Celestial I guess it comes down to the definition of 'several' in the family court then? As I said, technically one application and one letter to the court to request an order change was part of one proceeding. The second letter to court may have been part of that as well. I don't think the letters count as applications, even if they were asking the judge to make a change?

The frequent emails from her ex's solicitor saying they intend to pursue court action for perceived (non contact related) slights, the extra unnecessary hearings and the letters from the court requiring immediate action from my friend are causing her significant distress (she is on medication and in counselling over it) which obviously has an impact on how she is with the children, especially in trying to shield them from all of it. Is that the sort of thing you meant by it causing damage to the children? There is no money left to pay for solicitors, her savings have already gone from the first year of this, so I guess there isn't a quantifiable financial loss to the children's household?

Wouldn't the court take in consideration more than the financial aspect though? I mean I suppose it would depend on how old the children are but you say your friend is shielding them from the court process but they must know about certain things depending on if the family case had cafcass involvement?

If they are old enough to understand what's been going on or even if not, wouldn't they look at the emotional aspect of how numerous proceedings/involvement affects them and if allowing more and more applications would do more harm than good for them?

Aren't family proceedings meant to be in the interest of the children above all else? Fuck, I'm waffling on now, Hop, sorry. I'm no good at getting really specific with what I'm trying to say without long winding it!

No I would say the correspondence from solicitors is all part of the general to and fro and stress of family litigation. I would say the magic number if 3 - if she gets three orders arising from his applications that say "wholly without merit" or "totally without merit" then she could write to court and ask the designated family judge to consider making an order restraining him from making more applications without the courts permission. It doesn't need to be a formal application, just a letter to the designated family judge.

The other time to ask is at a final hearing - if it has been very drawn out and very hard fought she could ask the judge hearing the matter "would you consider making an order saying no more applications by H without the courts consent for 6 months/a year?". The judge is only really likely to do this if s/he has found that he has made without merit applications and only if it is the children's interests. They will be likely to have expressed some judicial dissatisfaction with how H has conducted himself clear before it is worth trying I would say.

It tends to be on the number of cases and not hearings. Remember...courts decide how many hearings a case has and not the litigants!

As babybarrister says...one application is extremely unlikely to cut it.

The question is a bit `how long is a piece of string'. It's not so much the number of applications but the reason for them. Generating problems and then trying to punish the ex by taking the court is vexatious. Taking an ex to court who continually and clearly breaks order forcing them to make enforcement applications isn't.

If an application for a 91(14) is made the applicant will need to demonstrate that the applications made to date are without merit and convince the court of this.

Thank you all. My friend has seen local solicitors for a half hours advice which was helpful, but ultimately would have been too expensive to have those solicitors represent her. She already feels bad about wasting their time and doesn't feel as if she can go back to those solicitors unless she already has a good idea of cost and can afford it.

The application was for an enforcement order, but it was found that the order hadn't been breached so no order was made. The first letter was trying to change the contact order, so would be the same case. The second letter, as I said my friend has no idea what that was about but it has a different reference number from the court so maybe a different case? Both letters had a reply from the court saying no dice, no reason for a hearing or change. They don't say the words 'without merit' so I'm not sure they would be included in any 'count' anyway, even if they were classed as separate cases.

celestial there has already been a final hearing. Two of them in fact, as her ex wasn't happy with the outcome of the first one. There are no more hearings scheduled just now to tack it on to and tbh my friend is hoping it'll stay that way.

I'm very glad I've never been through the family court system if the solicitors letters are standard back and fore. They seemed really intimidating and frankly, quite bullying not to mention bloody pointless for the most part. Think ex saying he doesn't like the colour red and if my friend buys the children red clothes, he'll take her to court, if she doesn't respond immediately it will be used as evidence of her being obstructive sort of thing. Not that, but equally ridiculous wastes of time all the same.

Thank you all for your advice. I don't think I realised what I was letting myself in for when I offered to do a bit of reading around for my friend! I'm finding it most infuriating that the court stuff can't be considered for the criminal stuff and the other way around, when both are clearly part of the same pattern of overall continued abuse. Especially since it seems to be that if one passes the burden of proof threshold and results in charges being brought or a barring order made, then they would be considered for the other. In the mean time my friend seems to be in limbo where her ex is being an ass, but has spread it across two arenas so gets away with it. If I'm getting this infuriated, I can certainly see why my friend is overwhelmed and needed to ask for help!