Obsessed With Lawsuits

July 31, 2008 — -- Most people do whatever they can to avoid a lawsuit, but there are people who go out of their way to appear before a judge -- over and over and over again.

People who file numerous lawsuits, known as serial litigants, are often motivated by the hopes of winning lots of money or obtaining justice. And according to forensic psychiatrists, in some cases they're also motivated by deep psychological reasons -- paranoia, the need for attention or a belief that only in court will their perceived suffering be validated.

It's become widespread enough that some states are removing serial litigants from the legal system altogether, banning them from filing future suits.

"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.

"They are usually looking to have what they regard as suffering witnessed on the stage of the court. It is a theatrical enactment," he said. "The remedy in a civil case is typically money, but for these individuals it isn't about the money or justice. It is about having their suffering validated. They want acknowledgment of what they perceive as lifelong suffering."

In a handful of states, enforced most stringently in California, judges have the power to brand frequent plaintiffs "vexatious litigants" and bar them from filing future complaints. As a result of filing too often, relitigating cases that have already been decided, filing annoying motions or a perception that courts are being used to extort money, some 970 names have been added to California's list of vexatious litigants since 1991, according to the California Administrative Office of the Courts.

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."