At the hearing conducted pursuant to § 29-41-104, evidence of any of the following creates a rebuttable presumption that the civil action is an abusive civil action and that the person filing the action is an abusive civil action plaintiff and prefiling restrictions should be imposed upon the abusive civil action plaintiff:

(1) The same or substantially similar issues between the same or substantially similar civil action parties that are the subject of the alleged abusive civil action have been litigated against the civil action defendant within the past five (5) years in another court within the judicial district or another judicial district and the actions were dismissed on the merits or with prejudice against the civil action plaintiff;
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 29-41-105

  • Abusive civil action: means a civil action filed by a plaintiff against a defendant with whom the plaintiff shares a civil action party relationship primarily to harass or maliciously injure the defendant and at least one (1) of the following factors are applicable:
    (A) Claims, allegations, and other legal contentions made in the civil action are not warranted by existing law or by a reasonable argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law, or the establishment of new law. See Tennessee Code 29-41-101
  • Abusive civil action plaintiff: means a person who files a civil action that a court of record has determined to be an abusive civil action and against whom prefiling restrictions have been imposed pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 29-41-101
  • Civil action: means a civil action, as defined in Rule 2 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure. See Tennessee Code 29-41-101
  • Civil action defendant: means a person or persons against whom a civil action has been filed that a court of record has determined to be an abusive civil action and imposed prefiling restrictions against the abusive civil action plaintiff pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 29-41-101
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(2) The alleged abusive civil action plaintiff has used the same or substantially similar issues that are the subject of the current civil action as the basis for an adverse complaint against the civil action defendant to a regulatory or licensing board and the regulatory or licensing board dismissed the complaint after a contested case hearing in compliance with the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5;
(3) The alleged abusive civil action plaintiff has been sanctioned under Rule 11 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure or a similar rule or law in another state or the federal government for filing one (1) or more frivolous, vexatious, or abusive civil actions within the past ten (10) years of filing the current civil action alleged to be abusive and the previous frivolous, vexatious, or abusive civil actions involved the same or substantially the same issues between the same or substantially the same civil action parties; or
(4) A court of record in another judicial district has determined that a civil action filed against the civil action defendant was an abusive civil action and is under or has been under prefiling restrictions in that judicial district.
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