SINGAPORE: The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) on Wednesday (Jul 15) presented a detailed case seeking orders to declare Iris Koh and her husband Raymond Ng as vexatious litigants and to restrain them from launching lawsuits.
If granted, the orders could also cease all pending lawsuits the couple have mounted and require them to seek the court’s permission to proceed with any fresh ones.
Chief Counsel of the AGC’s civil division, Deputy Solicitor-General Vincent Leow, argued that the couple was waging “lawfare” and weaponising the civil justice process for collateral purposes.
In seeking the orders, Mr Leow highlighted four civil cases mounted in the courts by one or other of the couple.
He said the couple developed a business model, raising funds to launch lawsuits, the majority of which are in defamation.
Along with his fellow state counsels, Mr Leow said in written submissions that the pair have gone “far beyond ordinary bounds of litigation to engage in a calculated lawfare strategy” to “exploit others” and “monetise litigation”.
While costs might usually deter people from taking out lawsuits, the couple face “no real costs” since they crowdfund to cover their costs, he said.
If there are no consequences to their “conduct”, Mr Leow said a person can “just willy-nilly (go) around funding lawsuits”.
The AGC is seeking to declare the couple vexatious litigants under Section 74 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act. To succeed, they must prove that the couple had habitually and persistently and without any reasonable grounds instituted vexatious legal proceedings.
If the orders sought under Section 74 are not granted, the AGC is seeking general civil restraint orders under Section 73D instead.
This would restrain the couple from commencing any civil action or making any civil application without permission of the court for two years.
Mr Leow said there was a “consistent pattern” in the couple’s actions in seeking applications that had “no real reasonable basis”.
While they were unrepresented in their civil lawsuits, Mr Leow said the court has said that litigants in person are held to the same rules.
“If this was a one-off incident we would not be here. But you have a continual pattern of taking out applications that have no real merit,” he said.
“I think at some point, enough is enough. At some point, the excuse that I’m just a litigant in person must ring hollow. If every application I’m bringing fails because it has no merit, the question has to be asked why are you still doing so.”
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