“Abuse of process refers to the improper use of a civil or criminal legal procedure for an unintended, malicious, or perverse reason. It is the malicious and deliberate misuse of regularly issued civil or criminal court process that is not justified by the underlying legal action. Abuse of process includes litigation actions in bad faith that is meant to delay the delivery of justice.

Examples include serving legal papers on someone which have not actually been filed with the intent to intimidate, or filing a lawsuit without a genuine legal basis in order to obtain information, force payment through fear of legal entanglement or gain an unfair or illegal advantage. The determination of what in unfair and wrong is for the court to determine on the individual facts of each case. It is important to understand that simply because the other party has a weak case does not mean that there was abuse of process, even if that party eventually loses the case.

The key elements of abuse of process is the malicious and deliberate misuseof regularly issued civil or criminal court process that is not justified by the underlying legal action, and that the abuser of process is interested only in accomplishing some improper purpose similar to the proper object of the process.

Abuse of process is an intentional tort. Abuse of process encompasses the entire range of procedures incident to the litigation process such as discovery proceedings, the noticing of depositions and the issuing of subpoenas. Pellegrino Food Prods. Co. v. City of Warren, 136 F. Supp. 2d 391, 407 (W.D. Pa. 2000). The key is state of mind and that is one reason such cases may be difficult to prove. Being wrong, being stubborn, indeed, being stupid is not enough. One must intentionally seek to abuse the system. As one client put it, “My problem is that the fellow was too stupid to plot against me. He simply really though his absurd claim was a good one. I wish he had been smart enough to plot against me!”” https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/abuse-process-basics-and-practicalities#:~:text=Abuse%20of%20process%20refers,to%20plot%20against%20me!%E2%80%9D