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ARTICLE · 20 SEPTEMBER 2024

Vexing The Vexatious: A New Vexatious Litigant Regime In Ontario

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On August 2, 2024, the Ontario Government introduced Ontario Regulation 322/24, a new regulation that overhauls the vexatious litigant regime in Ontario. The new regulation revises the Rules of Civil Procedure...

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Luke Sabourin
Luke Sabourin
Ben Grondin
Ben Grondin
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On August 2, 2024, the Ontario Government introduced Ontario Regulation 322/24, a new regulation that overhauls the vexatious litigant regime in Ontario.

The new regulation revises the Rules of Civil Procedure to create a comprehensive framework for addressing frivolous, vexatious, or abusive litigants while also providing guidance on the content of orders made against such litigants. At the same time, the Courts of Justice Act1 will be amended to facilitate the new regime.

The trouble with vexatious litigants

The Courts of Justice Act defines a vexatious litigant as a person who "has persistently and without reasonable grounds instituted vexatious proceedings in any court or conducted a proceeding in any court in a vexatious manner."2 In turn, the Oxford English Dictionary describes vexatiousness in the legal context as a legal action "instituted or taken without sufficient grounds, purely to cause trouble or annoyance to the defendant."3

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