It won't be easy for Althea Reyes to drag another person before a judge. The one-time beauty queen has been declared a "vexatious litigant" for repeatedly abusing Ontario courts with frivolous lawsuits.

The rare designation means she cannot continue or begin any new cases in any level of court in Ontario without first getting permission from a judge.

Reyes is appealing the May 31 order by Justice Paul Perell restricting her access to the courts.

Ontario's attorney general had requested Reyes be declared vexatious, saying in a court application that her barrage of lawsuits and court motions are a frivolous "abuse of the court's process and a waste of judicial and public resources."

A 2016 Star investigation found Reyes has sued at least 30 people, companies and organizations since 2011 in Toronto. She has targeted successful men she had relationships with, a school board, bank employees, a pawnshop, a dry cleaning business, lawyers who have opposed her in the courtroom, and a complete stranger.

Reyes, who attended law school but is not licensed to practice law, has used her legal knowledge to drag out proceedings and aggravate the people she has pulled into court, the Star found.

She has a long history of defending herself — often successfully — against criminal charges, including fraudulent impersonation. That charge was withdrawn in January after Reyes agreed to a peace bond and not to use, in any way, the name Allison Reyes.

The new order does not prevent her from defending herself in court against criminal charges.

On more than one occasion Reyes presented herself as a lawyer and took money to represent people in small claims court, prompting the Law Society of Upper Canada to obtain an injunction forbidding her to offer legal services.

When reached by phone last week, Reyes hung up. She then tried to take the Star to court by filing an emergency motion that asked, among other things, for a judge to prohibit the journalists from contacting her.

The motion was tossed by a judge because she did not first get permission to file it.

The order against Reyes is the 197th time the Ontario courts have declared someone a vexatious litigant — and the second time such an order has been made against Reyes.

The first order, made in 2009 following an acrimonious child support dispute, barred Reyes from starting or continuing any court proceedings — but only if the cases were connected to her daughter.

The new one is much broader and prevents Reyes from filing any court action without first getting approval from a judge.

Reyes had flouted the narrower 2009 order and continued to launch new lawsuits involving her child.

In fall 2016, a Superior Court judge threw out three of those cases, explaining that "the court has mistakenly allowed several claims to be commenced by the plaintiff without leave."

The new order also blocks Reyes from filing any court proceedings under any of her aliases. Reyes has gone by a number of names: Althea, Allie and Elle.

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In court filings, a lawyer for the attorney general said Reyes routinely refuses to respect the outcome of court cases when they go against her and instead rolls the allegations over into new lawsuits, sometimes suing the lawyers who had previously opposed her.

"(Reyes) then pursues frivolous appeals, routinely fails to appear in court when required to do so and then fails to pay costs awards made against her."

Reyes, uncharacteristically, did not file any paperwork or attend the hearing where she was found to be a vexatious litigant.

In her notice of appeal, she calls the vexatious litigant declaration "a very serious matter" and says she was entitled to more time to retain a lawyer.

The lawsuits she filed, she maintains, were an attempt to recover possessions that were lost while she was being kept in custody for charges that were later withdrawn or dismissed.

"The claims are not vexatious or frivolous as it is her right to obtain her property being illegally withheld by a third party," her notice reads.

Some of Reyes lawsuits targeted former romantic partners, men who hold prominent positions in the worlds of media, finance and the arts, including one who gave her almost $100,000 and paid private school fees for one of her children.

Last November, Reyes told the Star to hold off on publishing her story until all of her matters before the court were concluded, or else.

The minute you publish anything you're getting sued," she said.

Reyes recently informed the court that she intends to soon file an application to get permission to pursue a lawsuit against the Star.

Toronto Star