Litigation Abuse

For you to be able to request an order, all of the following must be true:

1. The person engaging in abusive litigation is your current or former intimate partner, which is defined as:
   
   1. your current or former spouse or domestic partner;
   2. someone you have a child with, unless the child was conceived through sexual assault; or
   3. someone you are currently dating or have dated, as long as you both were at least 13 years old;¹
2. The person engaging in abusive litigation has been found to have committed domestic violence against you by:
   
   1. a domestic violence protection order, stalking protection order, civil anti-harassment order, sexual assault protection order, vulnerable adult protection order, extreme risk protection order, or a protection order entered under former chapter 26.50 of the law;
   2. a parenting plan with restrictions based on a history of domestic violence, or an assault or sexual assault that caused:
      
      1. serious bodily injury;
      2. fear of serious bodily injury; or
      3. a pregnancy; or
   3. a restraining order entered under Chapters 26.09, 26.26A, or 26.26B of the law, as long as the judge made a specific finding that the order was necessary due to domestic violence;² and
3. The litigation is intended to harass or intimidate you, or to keep contact with you.²

You will also have to show that one of the following factors applies in your case:

1. the legal claims against you are not based on:
   
   1. any existing law;
   2. a reasonable argument that the current law should be changed; or
   3. a reasonable argument for passing a new law;
2. there is no evidence for the factual allegations against you; or
3. 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 R.C.W. § 7.105.010(20)
² R.C.W. § 26.51.020(1)(a)
³ R.C.W. § 26.51.020(1)(b)

There is no filing fee to request an order restricting abusive litigation.¹

¹ R.C.W. § 26.51.030(4)