JOHN Wilson swears he doesn't mean to annoy every judge, in every court.

But you wouldn't know it from his chequered history with the justice system.

Mr Wilson has launched almost two dozen sets of litigation since 1996, when he brought his first case against St George Bank claiming his seven-year loan was void.

He lost. But that didn't stop him trying again.

Mr Wilson claims that the appointment of all judges is fraudulent and they have no jurisdiction over him. He relies on the Magna Carta, issued in England in 1215, to back his argument that every person has the right to be tried by a jury in every court.

"I don't mean to piss them off. I mean to help them. They're doing it all wrong," said the 68-year-old legal crusader, a former dentist. But Mr Wilson may well have faced off with his last judge.

Last month, he became the 16th person since 1990 to be declared a vexatious litigant by the NSW Supreme Court.

He was the fifth person outlawed by the courts this year as Attorney-General John Hatzistergos gets tough on serial nuisances clogging the system.

One of them, deregistered doctor Michael Bar-Mordecai, said there was such a thing as "battered litigant syndrome", which he said could lead a person suffering from the condition to contemplate maiming or killing a judicial officer as a "cry for help".

Then there is Lucy Klewer - known in legal circles as "Klewer the Suer" - who launched 60 separate litigations, winning just one.

Mr Hatzistergos said some court abusers had pursued more than 100 cases each, costing their opponents millions of dollars in legal bills, draining court resources and delaying genuine cases.

"Courts exist to administer justice and help people resolve their legal disputes," Mr Hatzistergos said.

"They do not exist so that people can pursue unreasonable law suits to intimidate, harass or annoy others without any reason."

The Government introduced laws in 2008 to make it easier for courts, mainly the Supreme Court, to declare people who persistently make frivolous claims as vexatious litigants.



They are banned from starting court proceedings without permission.

"Innocent parties can be dragged through the courts, often at great financial and emotional costs," Mr Hatzistergos said.

Most vexatious litigants represent themselves, either because they can't find or afford a lawyer to argue their case or because they believe only they can do it properly.

Some, like Mr Wilson, earn a grudging respect from the barristers paid thousands per day to go up against them.



"They are the most irritating type of litigant to be against but they are usually hyper-prepared," a barrister said.

Mr Wilson is planning to appeal against being declared a vexatious litigant.

Litany of ligigation and other inanities



John Wilson:



A deregistered dentist who stopped payments for his Sydney North Rocks surgery after deciding the mortgage was unlawful under the Magna Carta - the English legal charter dating back to 1215.



He has had 17 cases in the higher courts, three of them against St George Bank.



He was jailed for contempt of court after throwing two paint bombs at a judge.



Wilson once claimed $25 million against the Dental Board and the State of NSW.



He claims everyone has a right to trial by jury and judges have no authority over him.



Lucy Patricia Klewer:



She has launched 60 court actions, won just one and won a compromise in another.



She took out an AVO against her former solicitor after he wanted her to pay her bill, tried to sue Coffs Harbour Council, in NSW, for impounding her two labradors, took legal action against a nurse for swearing at her and sued her son's headmaster after she was removed from a school office for abusing staff.



Justice Joanne Harrison said she regularly sought the waiver of court fees and other indulgences and sought sympathy on the basis of having seven children. Days before Justice Harrison handed down a decision to have her declared a vexatious litigant, Klewer faxed her this message: "If I were to die before Friday can you promise you will not proceed with your decision?"



Michael Jacob Bar-Mordecai:



An ex-doctor, from Clovelly, Sydney, he moved in with patient Eveline Hillston a few months after her husband Jack died in 1983.



When she died in 1994, he claimed she had no will and that as her defacto he should inherit. He lost in a decision that became the catalyst for about 40 separate cases including claiming a judge screamed at him and frothed at the mouth.



Struck off the medical register, Bar-Mordecai has admitted considering assaulting one judge "as a means of gaining a tactical advantage" and has published a paper proposing the existence of a "battered litigant syndrome" in which he states a sufferer may contemplate maiming or killing a judicial figure as a "cry for help".