Vexatious litigants can waste the time of judges and administrative staff and prevent other, legitimate claims from being dealt with. Vexatious litigants can also force other people to incur otherwise unnecessary legal bills, by having to defend themselves against meritless claims. Vexatious litigants can therefore pose a serious problem for Nova Scotia’s civil justice system. John E.S. Briggs, Executive Director of the Commission, states, "Although statistics aren’t kept about the number of vexatious litigants in the province, it’s clear that a small number of people can tie up a large amount of resources and cause a great deal of disruption by making groundless claims."

Vexatious litigants pose challenges to judicial systems across the country. Legislation or court rules meant to control vexatious litigants are in place respectively in 7 other provinces, as well as in the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Courts of Canada. Mr. Briggs explains: "Access to justice is a fundamental right in our society. Unfortunately, vexatious litigants can abuse that right, by repeatedly bringing to court claims which have no merit." To help ensure access to the courts for all, as well as to prevent the abuse of the courts’ process and the waste of time and money, the Law Reform Commission suggests the adoption of a vexatious litigants statute in Nova Scotia.

The proposed statute would explicitly empower the courts to make an order against a vexatious litigant. The order would prevent a vexatious litigant from starting any new proceedings or continuing with an existing proceeding until court leave was granted to lift the order. A balanced approach would be used, one which empowers the courts to deal effectively with vexatious litigants, but which also permits someone subject to a court order to seek court leave to have the order lifted when circumstances change.

Among other proposals, this Final Report also recommends: