I know legal proceedings can be time consuming and stressful. Can a plaintiff sue the defendant for the time and energy involved? Would they need to show something, for example taking time off work to attend a hearing?
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3Possible duplicate of Do courts award legal costs to successful pro se litigants?– user4657Sep 23, 2019 at 10:25
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It's close, but I see a distinction between the two questions. This question is asking one lawsuit giving rise to a new one seeking damages for emotional distress, etc. The previous question asked about awarding costs as a sanction in the case in which they were incurred.– bdb484Sep 23, 2019 at 18:16
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@Nij this question does not even say the person is pro se. OP could still mean having a lawyer representing them. How can this be duplicate?– GreendrakeSep 24, 2019 at 0:26
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If this was the case in all lawsuits, it would simply result in every lawsuit leading to an infinite loop.– SomeoneNov 28, 2022 at 4:32
1 Answer
Common law countries -- such as Canada -- do not usually allow these types of actions. There may be exceptions for "abuse of process" cases, in which the plaintiff generally alleges that the other party was pursuing the litigation in bad faith.
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How is abuse of process applicable here? From my understanding it usually works the other way around, when the plaintiff starts legal action without proper reason to do so. I am very interested in any legal concept where one party does not make an honest effort to resolve things but instead wastes time. Sep 28, 2019 at 7:11
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1Oh, I think I misread the question. No, you can't sue someone and then sue them more just because you chose to sue them. As long as they comply with the applicable rules of court, I can't imagine you could do anything about the time involved. If they're acting in bad faith simply to drag out the process, though, you could ask the court to impose sanctions.– bdb484Sep 29, 2019 at 17:50
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