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The problem of serial litigants is not new. Since Lawyers Weekly first looked at the issue five years ago, only the numbers and a few of the names have changed.
A 2011 story identified six litigants who had filed 464 complaints, appeals or other requests for relief. More recently, in a decision involving an incarcerated serial litigant, Superior Court Judge Dennis J. Curran made note of seven prisoners responsible for 709 lawsuits and appeals.
That might seem like a relatively small number considering the overall volume of cases. But the filings tend to be voluminous: In the case before Curran, the judge observed that the complaint spanned 260 paragraphs over 86 pages and included 162 exhibits.
And the burden on the system isn't just from the extensive filings. There's the waste of court time as well. Curran spent approximately an hour hearing serial litigant Alex J. Reis' latest complaint before granting the defendants' motion to dismiss. And he noted that Reis' various lawsuits have required 244 decisions by various judges.
In his decision, Curran argued that enough is enough, asserting that "such 'legal' nonsense cannot continue to be borne on the...