California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Shetty v. Deutsche Bank Nat'l Trust Co., B277924 (Cal. App. 2019):
"The vexatious litigant statutes ( 391-391.7) are designed to curb misuse of the court system by those persistent and obsessive litigants who, repeatedly litigating the same issues through groundless actions, waste the time and resources of the court system and other litigants." (Shalant v. Girardi (2011) 51 Cal.4th 1164, 1169.) The statutes provide two complementary
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sets of remedies: "In pending litigation, a defendant may have the plaintiff declared a vexatious litigant and, if the plaintiff has no reasonable probability of prevailing, ordered to furnish security. If the plaintiff fails to furnish the security, the action will be dismissed. [Citation.] In addition, a potential defendant may prevent the vexatious litigant plaintiff from filing any new litigation in propria persona by obtaining a prefiling order and, if any new litigation is inadvertently permitted to be filed in propria persona without the presiding judge's [or presiding justice's] permission, may then obtain its dismissal." (Id. at p. 1171; see Bravo v. Ismaj (2002) 99 Cal.App.4th 211, 221 [ 391.7 "'operates beyond the pending case' and authorizes a court to enter a 'prefiling order' that prohibits a vexatious litigant from filing any new litigation in propria persona without first obtaining permission from the presiding judge"].)
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