PRINTER'S NO. 1147
No. 961 Session of 2001
INTRODUCED BY THOMPSON, BRIGHTBILL, JUBELIRER, TOMLINSON,
MOWERY, M. WHITE, ERICKSON, D. WHITE, GREENLEAF, WENGER,
KUKOVICH, BOSCOLA, ROBBINS, CORMAN, COSTA AND WAUGH,
JUNE 11, 2001
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, JUNE 11, 2001
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 42 (Judiciary and Judicial Procedure) of the
2 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, establishing a cause of
3 action for frivolous litigation.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Title 42 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
7 Statutes is amended by adding a section to read:
8 § 8356. Frivolous litigation.
9 (a) Cause of action for frivolous or bad faith litigation.--
10 There is created a separate cause of action for damages arising
11 out of the filing of a frivolous or bad faith pleading, motion,
12 legal paper or other paper directed to the court or discovery
13 request or response, served by an attorney and the law firm of
14 which the attorney is a member or by a party who is not
15 represented by an attorney. The injured party must file this
16 action only in the same court and division where the original
17 action or matter was filed; this action shall not be collateral
1 to the original action and shall proceed without reference to
2 its status. There shall be no jury trial.
3 (b) Elements of the action.--A pleading, motion, legal paper
4 or other paper directed to the court or discovery request or
5 response served shall be presumed to be neither frivolous nor
6 filed or served in bad faith. In order to establish the cause of
7 action, the injured party must prove one of the following:
8 (1) The document is being presented for an improper
9 purpose, such as to harass or cause unnecessary delay or
10 needless increase in the cost of litigation.
11 (2) The claims, defenses or other legal contentions in
12 the document are not warranted by existing law or by a non-
13 frivolous argument for the extension, modification or
14 reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law.
15 (3) The allegations and other factual contentions have
16 no evidentiary support or, if not specifically identified,
17 are likely to have no evidentiary support, after a reasonable
18 opportunity for further investigation or discovery.
19 (4) The denials of factual contentions are not warranted
20 on the evidence or, if not specifically so identified, are
21 not reasonably based on a lack of information or belief.
22 (c) Notice to defendant.--Before filing an action under this
23 section, the plaintiff must notify the defendant in writing of
24 the intention to file the action, attaching a copy of the
25 proposed complaint. Each recipient of a notice shall have 20
26 days in which to withdraw or otherwise cure the pleading,
27 motion, legal paper or other paper or discovery request or
28 response. If the filing is withdrawn or otherwise cured, there
29 shall be no basis for the cause of action.
30 (d) Damages.--Upon finding that the cause of action has been
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1 established, the court shall award damages to the complaining
2 party in an amount sufficient to compensate for the party's
3 direct expenses or injuries incurred because of the frivolous
4 litigation. Damages under this subsection include:
5 (1) Attorney fees.
6 (2) Costs of litigation, including discovery proceedings
7 utilized by the parties to establish the action and the
8 injuries alleged.
9 (3) Such additional damages as will deter repetition of
10 such conduct by the defendant and others similarly situated.
11 (e) Other remedies.--Nothing in this section shall preclude
12 the court from exercising its inherent supervisory power or from
13 imposing appropriate nonmonetary or monetary sanctions upon the
14 attorneys, law firms and unrepresented parties who have engaged
15 in frivolous or bad faith litigation under existing law and
16 rules of procedure.
17 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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