December 24, 2004

It's unconstitutional, argues veteran San Francisco litigant Burton Wolfe, who's filed more than 40 lawsuits in his home town and, per the Recorder, says he's "settled about 25 for a total of $200,000 or so". The Ninth Circuit is letting his suit go forward.

"People on the [vexatious-litigant] list can be required to get permission from their local presiding judge or post security bonds before filing any more suits. There are several ways to get listed, including the repeated filing of pointless suits. For Wolfe, it was his repeated losses in lawsuits over the employment status of cab drivers." By all accounts, judges don't invoke the vexatious-litigant statute very often; one recent high-profile instance, involving serial disabled-rights complainant Jarek Molski, was discussed Dec. 12 on Overlawyered.