Governor signs bill expanding Florida’s vexatious litigant law
Rep. Judson Sapp
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill aimed at cracking down on abusive and repetitive lawsuits, expanding Florida’s vexatious litigant law to cover more types of cases and give judges broader authority to rein in courtroom misconduct.
HB 1559 by Rep. Judson Sapp, R-Palatka, came out of recommendations put forth by the Workgroup on Vexatious Litigation that Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz formed last year.
Sen. Erin Grall
The measure defines conduct as vexatious if it “relitigates, or attempts to relitigate the validity of the determination, cause of action, claim, controversy, or any issue of fact or law against the same party after a case has been finally and adversely determined, or if the litigant repeatedly files pleadings, motions, or other documents that have been the subject of previous rulings by the court, or are frivolous or solely intended to cause unnecessary delay,” Republican Sen. Erin Grall, a Vero Beach attorney, said when she presented the bill on the Senate floor.
Among other things, the bill expands the scope of the existing law to include family law and small claims cases, and would make any party to a civil action, not just the plaintiff, subject to a “vexatious litigant” designation.
It also authorizes judges to consider a litigant’s conduct in federal court and other states when deciding whether to designate someone a vexatious litigant.
The number of “qualifying actions” is reduced from five to three, and the covered timeframe is extended from five to seven years.
Vexatious litigation takes many forms, First District Court of Appeal Judge Rachel Nordby, chair of the Workgroup on Vexatious Litigation, said when presenting the panel’s findings to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year.
“Filing multiple meritless lawsuits, attempting to relitigate matters that have already been decided by the court, and submitting documents with harassing, scandalous, or sham material to the court.”
Florida’s existing law was enacted in 2000.
