Litigation Abuse

An abusive civil action means a civil court case filed against you that meets all of these three factors:

1. It was filed by someone you have a “civil action party relationship” with, which is defined as:
   • your current or former spouse;
   • someone with whom you live or have lived;
   • an adult you are dating or have dated, or have or had a sexual relationship;
   • an adult related to you by blood or adoption;
   • an adult related to you by a current or former marriage; or
   • the adult child of a person described in the above five paragraphs;¹
2. The case is intended primarily to harass or maliciously injure you, which means it will:
   • completely use up, reduce, hurt, or change your financial resources for the worse, although there are a few exceptions;
   • prevent or interfere with your ability to raise your child(ren) in the way you believe is appropriate, unless the abuser has a lawful right to interfere and a good faith basis for doing so;
   • force or attempt to force you to agree to a compromise that is against your interest regarding financial, custodial, support, or other issues that have already been decided in your favor by a court;
   • force or attempt to force you to do something, to not do something, or to change the way you do something that is legal and that you have the right to do;
   • hurt or attempt to hurt your health or well-being;
   • prevent or interfere with your ability to pursue a livelihood or lifestyle as you did before the filing of the abusive civil action; or
   • hurt your reputation in the community or alienate your friends, colleagues, attorneys, or professional associates through the use of unnecessarily complex, lengthy, or intrusive interrogatories or depositions;² and
3. One of the following is true:

• the legal claims against you are not based on:
  
  • any existing law;
  • a reasonable argument that the current law should be changed; or
  • a reasonable argument for passing a new law;
• there is no evidence for the factual allegations against you; or
• one or more of the issues that the abuser is using as the basis of the current case against you have already been filed in another court, and the abuser lost in that other court after the issues were litigated.³ 

¹ Tenn. Code § 29-41-101(5)
² Tenn. Code § 29-41-101(6)
³ Tenn. Code § 29-41-101(1)