“Abusive litigation” means a legal action taken in court or related to a court case that is intended to abuse, harass, intimidate, or threaten you, or keep ongoing contact with you.¹ It is often carried out by an abusive partner who is trying to keep power and control over a victim who has left the relationship or is in the process of trying to leave. Abusive litigation can be any kind of legal action, including:

• filing or serving a summons, complaint, or petition;
• filing or serving a motion, notice of court date, or order to appear; or
• filing or serving a subpoena, subpoena duces tecum, request for interrogatories, notice of deposition, or another discovery request.² 

If you are facing abusive litigation, you may be able to ask the judge to issue an order restricting abusive litigation.

¹ VT ST 15 § 1181(1)(C)
² VT ST 15 § 1181(3)

There are certain circumstances that will create what is called a “rebuttable presumption” that the court case against you is, in fact, abusive litigation. This means that if 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;
2. The same or substantially similar issues have been raised or pled in a court case in the past five years and the judge heard the evidence and made a decision (decided on the merits) or it was dismissed;
3. The abuser has been punished (sanctioned) by any court in the past ten years for filing one or more cases against you that were found to be without a legal basis (frivolous), harassing (vexatious), “intransigent,” or in bad faith; or
4. The abuser has been found by any court to have engaged in abusive litigation or similar acts and that court placed pre-filing restrictions on him/her.¹

¹ VT ST 15 § 1183

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

1. The person engaging in abusive litigation:
   
   1. is your current or former family or household member, which is defined as:
      
      1. someone with whom you are living or have lived;
      2. someone with whom you share or have shared a home;
      3. someone with whom you are having or used to have a sexual relationship;
      4. someone you are dating or have dated;
      5. a spouse or former spouse; or
      6. someone related by blood or marriage; or
   2. has had a civil order or criminal conviction issued against him/her that determined that s/he has stalked or sexually assaulted you;¹
       
2. The person engaging in abusive litigation has been found to have abused, stalked, or sexually assaulted you by:
   
   1. a final abuse prevention order;
   2. a final order against stalking or sexual assault;
   3. a final “foreign abuse prevention order,” which means any protection order similar to the ones listed above that was issued by the court of any other state, territory, or federally recognized Indian tribe;
   4. an order regarding conditions of parent-child contact in cases involving domestic violence;
   5. a conviction for domestic assault, stalking, or sexual assault; or
   6. a determination by a judge that there is probable cause for a charge of domestic assault, if the court has imposed conditions on the abuser’s release pertaining to your safety;² and
       
3. The litigation is intended primarily to abuse, harass, intimidate, or threaten you, or to keep in contact with you.³

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, and none is likely to be found after a reasonable opportunity for investigation; 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.⁴ 

¹ VT ST 15 § 1181(1)(A); see also Complaint for Relief from Abuse on the Vermont Judiciary Website
² VT ST 15 § 1181(1)(B)
³ VT ST 15 § 1181(1)(C)
⁴ VT ST 15 § 1181(1)(D)

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

¹ VT ST 15 § 1182(e)

If, after you present all of your evidence, the judge decides that the litigation against you is not abusive, the judge is required to explain the decision either in a written order or orally at the hearing. The case that the abuser has brought against you will then proceed normally and you will be expected to participate in it.¹

You can read more about appealing an order if you believe the judge made an error, and you can look for a lawyer if you need advice on your options at this stage. If you are hoping to prevent the abuser from contacting you outside of court, you may also want to read about relief from abuse orders and sexual assault or stalking protective orders to see if you qualify for either.

¹ VT ST 15 § 1184(c)