Serial Litigants
Have you heard the term “serial litigants”? ABC.com profiles a few individuals who fit the bill and what exactly it means to be a serial litigant. Research on the subject is minimal at best, but an Australian study “found that many vexatious litigants displayed symptoms consistent with ‘querulous paranoia’."
"The central feature clinically is their complete quest for a personal vision of justice to which all else is subjected," wrote forensic psychologists Paul E. Mullen and Grant Lester.
"Unlike many deluded patients… the querulous provide a detailed and apparently logical account of the emergence of their grievances and the progress of their quest for justice," they wrote.
Many serial litigants believe that they have been wronged time and time again and are entitled to monetary compensation, however many forensic psychiatrists believe that in a lot of cases they are driven by psychological reasons, even paranoia. Their need for attention or the thought process that their “perceived suffering” will only be justified in court is a large driving factor.
"Serial litigants are ubiquitous," said Dr. Mark Levy, a forensic psychiatrist and professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. "Everybody has a right to his day in court, but some people are there for psychological rather than judicial reasons."
Frequent plaintiffs can in some cases sue hundreds of companies and individuals or spend years in court, suing increasing numbers of people related to one or many perceived injustices, Levy said.
Some states have begun throwing out cases from “vexatious litigants” and keep them from filing complaints in the future. California alone has banned 970 different individuals from filing frivolous lawsuits. An example:
One of those 970 names belongs to Jarek Molski, a 37-year-old wheelchair-bound man who filed more than 400 cases in two years under the Americans with Disabilities Act against restaurants, hotels and wineries for not complying with state and federal regulations.
In 2004, U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie said Molski was a vexatious litigant who was "misusing a noble law" and engaged in a "scheme of systematic extortion."
Many serial litigants are just looking for closure to whatever their situation may be. Sadly some never find it.
