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Courts are designed to resolve disputes and protect people’s rights. For example, personal injury lawsuits exist to help victims get compensated for medical bills and emotional distress. While most people file cases over serious matters, sometimes court dockets include lawsuits filed over trivial, strange, and irrational grievances. These cases don’t usually succeed. And while they can be entertaining, they demonstrate how easy it is to abuse the process.
Below are 6 examples of the types of cases that waste the court’s time and resources:
- Suing over personal slights and hurt feelings
Some of the strangest lawsuits arise from insults rather than actual legal harm. Sometimes people treat the legal system as a complaint desk and try to litigate other people’s distasteful behavior. It’s kind of like calling 911 because your neighbor stole your newspaper instead of talking to your neighbor or just letting it go.
Many people have sued over being laughed at, ignored, or yelled at, claiming it caused emotional trauma. However, without medical documentation or evidence, these cases get dismissed. Emotional distress claims require demonstrable harm and conduct that goes beyond simple disagreements or arguments.
Lawsuits that frame insults as harassment or defamation are also common. These cases don’t meet the legal requirements for either crime. For example, defamation must involve false statements presented as fact, not just opinions or insults. And harassment isn’t a one-time act, no matter how annoying it might be.
- Product lawsuits based on regret
While there are many legitimate cases regarding defective products, some sue because they end up not liking the product. Buyer’s remorse doesn’t count as actionable harm, but many people file lawsuits anyway. People have sued over bad haircuts, small food portions, and disappointing entertainment experiences. These cases fail because dissatisfaction isn’t grounds for a lawsuit.
- Blaming businesses for acts of nature
Some lawsuits attempt to hold businesses legally responsible for events beyond their control or for obvious risks. For example, people have sued over injuries caused by slipping in the rain and tripping on clearly visible obstacles. In these situations, courts apply the “open and obvious” doctrine to limit liability when hazards are apparent. When risks are obvious and the plaintiff ignores them, the case typically fails.
The main element missing from these cases is negligence. Injury claims require proof of a duty, breach of that duty, causation, and damages. Most of these lawsuits don’t meet these requirements.
- Factually impossible allegations
Courts routinely see lawsuits built on allegations that are factually impossible, incoherent, or detached from reality. These complaints allege events that couldn’t have occurred, reference nonexistent technology, or assert conspiracies without any facts or evidence to back them up. Most of these cases come from pro se litigants because licensed attorneys won’t file claims that lack a factual foundation.
Some examples of these lawsuits include claims of mind control, implants, and telepathic surveillance. Other lawsuits dismissed involve secret experiments, instantaneous travel, body duplication, and injuries caused without any physical interaction.
- Suing for embarrassment and inconvenience
Sometimes plaintiffs sue criminal defendants for embarrassing them, inconveniencing them, or causing them to be associated with a crime. You’ll find many of these frivolous cases on court TV shows for entertainment. In traditional courts, these cases don’t get very far. Civil courts require direct harm for a case to proceed. Being associated with a convicted or accused criminal in a way that shapes other people’s opinions doesn’t count as harm.
Other frivolous cases dropped by the court involve a man suing a dry cleaner for millions after allegedly being given the wrong pants, a woman who sued a TV weatherman for wrongly predicting a nice day, and a man who sued Anheuser-Busch, claiming their advertising made him believe drinking beer would give him a brand new lifestyle.
- Protest lawsuits
Some lawsuits are clearly more about generating attention than winning. These cases are a total misuse of the legal process. For example, some people file cases they know lack legal merit just to make a political statement. Many of these people find out the hard way that even when their case gets dismissed, the court can impose sanctions.
Some people don’t realize they’re abusing the court system
The legal system allows anyone to file a lawsuit without prior approval, but upon review, some cases never make it past filing. When claims are clearly impossible or unfounded, they’re immediately dismissed to preserve court resources and protect defendants from needless litigation.