Litigation Abuse

If you make a claim of an abusive civil action, the judge will hold a hearing where both parties can present evidence, testimony, etc.¹ There are certain circumstances that will create what is called a “rebuttable presumption” that the court case against you is, in fact, an abusive civil action. This means that if, at the hearing, you can show one of the following situations has happened, the judge will assume the litigation is abusive and the abuser would then bear the burden of proving otherwise:

1. The same or substantially similar issues have been litigated in any court between you and the abuser within the past five years and the judge heard the evidence and made a decision (decided on the merits) or it was dismissed “with prejudice,” which means it cannot be re-filed;
2. The same or substantially similar issues have been brought against you by the abuser in front of a regulatory or licensing board, and the case was dismissed after a contested case hearing;
3. The abuser has been punished (sanctioned) in the past ten years under Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 11 or a similar rule or law in another state because s/he filed one or more cases against you that were found to be without a legal basis (frivolous), harassing (vexatious), or an abusive civil action involving the same issues; or
4. The abuser has been found by a court in another judicial district to have filed an abusive civil action and that court placed pre-filing restrictions on him/her.²

¹ Tenn. Code § 29-41-104
² Tenn. Code § 29-41-105