Sprous v. Iowa District Court for Lee County

HARRIS, Justice.

In 1986, taking federal rule of civil procedure 11 as our model, we authorized the imposition of sanctions on those filing frivolous lawsuits. Iowa rule of civil procedure 80(a) authorizes sanctions against attorneys (or others) who misuse judicial process by such filings. Rule 80(b) extends this authority by authorizing courts to stay proceedings brought by nonattor-ney parties who have abused judicial process by unmeritorious filings three or more times during the previous five years.

Timothy Sprous, plaintiff in this certio-rari proceeding, was nineteen years old when he…