When someone is in an abusive relationship, physical violence is just one of several potential dangers they could be exposed to. The methods an abusive partner might use to maintain their sense of power and control are as numerous as they are insidious, and as some survivors have unfortunately learned, the abuse oftentimes doesn’t stop once the relationship has ended.
Litigation abuse is a particularly challenging form of abuse for survivors to contend with, not only because of the severe strain it puts on a survivor’s time and financial resources, but also because, in many states, it’s not technically illegal.
Defining Litigation Abuse
Within the complex and often hard-to-parse structures of our legal system, it can sometimes be hard to spot when litigation abuse is occurring. However, as with other forms of abuse, there are still telltale behaviors and patterns to watch out for:
- One party filing repeated, baseless motions against the other party with the goal of constantly dragging them into court and draining their financial resources
- The abusive party filing cross-petitions for protective orders with the goal of confusing court officials as to who the “perpetrator” and who the “victim” is
- Abusers attempting to gain custody of children they share with their partner (despite showing no actual interest in parenting those children) as a form of retaliation
- Abusers purposefully manipulating the discovery process by demanding access to sensitive documents, refusing to share requested materials, or submitting large quantities of irrelevant records
How Litigation Abuse Harms Survivors
Litigation abuse is a favored tactic for abusers who have access to more financial resources than their partner, since they’re able to maintain their control with virtually no risk on their end. If the abuser is smart and savvy, it can be hard for judges and court clerks to even notice the abuse is happening, even when the survivor tries to supply evidence proving as much. In some cases, judges and attorneys might even *purposefully ignore* instances of potential litigation abuse since they assume the survivor is just as much at fault as their abuser.
In a recent article from Delaware’s Cape Gazette, a survivor from Massachusetts named Molly Kate spoke about the excessive lengths her abusive ex-husband has gone to in order to control her through litigation abuse. According to Kate, in the four years since she and her husband separated, he’s forced her to attend 43 court hearings and filed over 400 court appeals she’s had to respond to. His vast financial resources allow him to continuously hire expensive lawyers who can keep her tied up in court with baseless litigation.
“I am drowning and drowning in fees, and there’s just no way I can keep up. He once told me I’d never be able to really leave him. I understand now what he meant.”
How Can We Stop Litigation Abuse?
As the Cape Gazette article points out, right now only four states (Washington, Vermont, Idaho, and Tennessee) have laws designed to specifically address and prevent litigation abuse. Thankfully, the Massachusetts State Judiciary Committee is currently considering a new bill, ‘An Act Relative to Controlling and Abusive Litigation’ (Bill H.1594), which would offer similar protections for survivors in Massachusetts.
If you’re a Massachusetts resident and you’d like to take action, you can contact your local state representative and encourage them to support Bill H.1594 (this free tool can help you find your local representative). You can also share this ‘Ten Ways to Detect and Address Litigation Abuse’ article with your peers and colleagues.
Bringing constant and consistent attention to litigation abuse and the long-term harm that it causes is one of the best ways to ensure judges, lawyers, and other court officials don’t just ignore or dismiss it when it happens. As with other forms of domestic abuse and intimate partner violence, litigation abuse won’t go away overnight. However, the change that we enact now will help spare future survivors the fear of being dragged into a whole new litigation-backed nightmare after they’ve escaped from their abusive partner.
