Attorney General successfully applies for Restriction of Proceedings Order against vexatious litigant

In Attorney General v Mallon [2025] EAT 168, the Attorney General successfully applied for a Restriction of Proceedings Order (RPO) under section 33 of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 against Dr Mallon, who had habitually and persistently instituted vexatious employment tribunal proceedings across the UK. The EAT imposed the RPO indefinitely, deeming it, on the facts of the case, a necessary and proportionate safeguard to protect the tribunal system and respondents from abuse in the form of vexatious claims and applications. Griffith HJ observed:

• the resources of the tribunal system are limited, and not to be wasted. The strain on litigants who have to respond to claims is not to be underestimated, and they are entitled to protection from claims which are an abuse of process and which are not based on reasonable grounds. Costs orders, even when made, never fully compensate for the expense incurred. The fact that a claim is wholly without merit does not mean that it has no impact on the people or companies against which it is made. On the contrary, a groundless and unjust allegation can be at least as distressing and shocking, for the person at the wrong end of it, as a claim which has some basis in law and fact

• since an RPO is a filter and not a bar, it does not reduce access to justice; certainly not to the extent that the very essence of the access right is impaired. Any claim that has merit will be allowed through the filter. Any claim that is an abuse of process, or does not have reasonable grounds, does not deserve to go any further. The ability to issue such claims, and to have them reviewed under the RPO, is itself a means of access to justice.

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