Frigger (Vexatious Proceedings Order)

[2026] FCA 1156

Federal Court of Australia

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

1. High Court and Federal Court
1. whether to make vexatious proceedings orders pursuant to s 37AO of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth)
1. question referred by full court to single judge
1. whether respondents have frequently instituted and/or conducted vexatious proceedings in Australian courts and tribunals

The frequency threshold under s 37AO(1)(a) is a relative standard lower than the former 'habitually and persistently' test; a court may find frequency even from a modest number of proceedings where they represent attempts to relitigate issues already determined, and the court may draw its own conclusions as to vexatiousness from the record of prior proceedings without requiring the prior judge to have characterised them as vexatious.
Interlocutory applications constitute 'proceedings' for the purposes of s 37AO, and the court may have regard to attempted (as well as actual) institution of proceedings under s 37AO(6)(a); the fact that a litigant was legally represented in some proceedings does not preclude those proceedings from being found vexatious.
The purpose of a vexatious proceedings order is protective rather than punitive — shielding other litigants from harassment and the court from the burden of baseless and repetitious suits — and the discretion to make orders is informed by the litigant's demonstrated pattern of advancing unfounded allegations, refusing to accept adverse outcomes, and consuming disproportionate public resources.