In the law of

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is ...

, a civil restraint order (CRO) is a

court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out ...

intended to prevent

vexatious litigation Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter whic ...

. Courts have the means of escalating the sanctions against a litigant who makes applications to the court that are "totally without merit": There are three types of CRO: limited, extended and general, with different scopes of application: *a limited civil restraint order (formerly a ''Grepe v. Loam'' orderGrepe v Loam (1887) 37 Ch.D 168
/ref>) where two or more applications totally without merit are made in a single proceedings. No further application may be made in the proceedings without the permission of the court. *an extended civil restraint order (formerly an ''Ebert'' order) for "persistently vexatious behaviour" lasts for a specified period of no more than two years for "applications touching upon instant matters" and can only be granted by a judge of the Court of Appeal, High Court or a designated civil judge. *a general civil restraint order (formerly a ''Bhamjee'' order) for a maximum of two years for all proceedings in the High Court or specified

county court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more county, counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by t ...

s. Further applications totally without merit can lead to withdrawal of the right of appeal. Harassment of the court and court officials can lead to a penal prohibition notice, prohibiting the litigant from contacting or approaching the court without permission. HM Courts Service maintains a list of vexatious litigants.

References

Court orders Civil procedure English law {{UK-law-stub

See also

References