This bill adds requirements for courts to provide certain information regarding abusive civil action plaintiffs. Present law defines "abusive civil action" as a civil action filed by a plaintiff against a defendant with whom the plaintiff shares a civil action party relationship primarily to harass or maliciously injure the defendant and at least one of the following factors are applicable:
(1) Claims, allegations, and other legal contentions made in the civil action are not warranted by existing law or by a reasonable argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law, or the establishment of new law;
(2) Allegations and other factual contentions made in the civil action are without the existence of evidentiary support; or
(3) Issue or issues that are the basis of the civil action have previously been filed in one or more other courts or jurisdictions by the same, and the actions have been litigated and disposed of unfavorably to the plaintiff.
Under present, the court that dismisses a pending abusive civil action is required to impose prefiling restrictions upon any civil action the abusive civil action plaintiff attempts to file for a period of not less than 48 months nor more than 72 months. This bill adds that the court must also distribute to the courts of each judicial district in the state a copy of the order imposing prefiling restrictions upon any civil action the abusive civil action plaintiff attempts to file. This bill also requires the courts of this state to maintain a list of all persons determined to be abusive civil action plaintiffs and the period of time the prefiling restrictions are in effect.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 56-7-1008