Jumping To Conclusions

I was intrigued by this entry over at Point of Law describing a rather overenthusiastic fan of the legal system:

Serial litigant Utahn Holli Lundahl has been barred from filing further appeals before the 10th Circuit, according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune. According to the article, Lundahl has filed more than 100 lawsuits in various courts and has been barred or restricted from filing further lawsuits on her own behalf by a variety of courts. The U.S. Supreme Court, in particular, has prohibited her from filing further non-criminal papers there.

In the 10th Circuit case, Eli Lilly and another defendant claim to have spent more than $1 million in defending themselves against Lundahl's claims, which the 10th Circuit called, "fanciful, implausible and bizarre."

Conclusion? I think we can safely say that Ms. Lundahl is a tad too eager to spend her time in court. How can I tell? Well, to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, you know someone is overly litigious when... shewins her case -- and then tries to appeal anyway.

But, once you get past the amusing anecdotes about this woman, this story has a more serious purpose: it goes to show just how misleading the opponents of tort reform are when they claim that frivolous litigation isn't a problem because courts can deal with it. Courts have a very difficult time doing so, or at least are very reluctant to do so. (Such a claim is disingenuous in another way, in that it conceals the fact that "frivolous" means something very different to the layperson and the courts.)

It may not cost every defendant $1 million to deal with a vexatious litigant, but even if it only costs a few thousand, those defense costs add up when someone files a hundred different suits.