Key point. Courts may respond to a plaintiff's repeated, frivolous lawsuits by imposing various sanctions.
A federal district court in Georgia fined a pastor for filing frivolous lawsuits against his denomination relating to his dismissal, and issued an order prohibiting him from filing additional lawsuits.
The court noted that the pastor had filed previous lawsuits against the denomination, all of which had been dismissed, and that none of his lawsuits raised new and valid arguments. The court dismissed the latest lawsuit, enjoined him from filing any more lawsuits, fined him $500 for being a "litigation menace," and published its opinion "to enable any church affiliates not involved in this case to discover this injunction and move this court to impose criminal contempt sanctions against him for any future violations of this injunction." Baker v. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2005 WL 1400750 (S.D. Ga. 2005).
