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'Barratry' is the name of two legal concepts, one in criminal and civil law, and one in admiralty law.

Contents

Criminal and civil law

Admiralty law

Other

References

See also

Criminal and civil law

Barratry, in criminal and civil law, is the act or practice of bringing repeated legal actions solely to harass. Usually, the actions brought lack merit. This action has been declared a crime in some jurisdictions. For example, in the U.S. states of California and Pennsylvania and Virginia, barratry is a misdemeanor. ^[1] In England and Wales the offence was abolished in 1967.
Barratry also refers to the act of soliciting legal business from potential clients based on a particular event not just solely to harass. For example, an attorney who stops at the scene of a car accident or follows an ambulance to an emergency room in hopes of finding and soliciting business from an injured and aggrieved person might be accused of barratry. The lawyer who practices barratry is called, pejoratively, an ''Ambulance chaser''.

Admiralty law

In admiralty law, barratry is a fraudulent act committed by a master or crew of a vessel which damages the vessel or its cargo. These activities may include desertion, illegal scuttling, theft of the ship or cargo, and/or committing any actions which may not be in the shipowner's best interests by the master or crew.

Other

Barratry, when used elsewhere, may refer to the buying and selling of positions (which are expected to bring greater income in time) within civil authority. This venality is the secular counterpart of simony, which is the buying and selling of positions (notably benefices) within the church.
In his Inferno, Canto XXII, Dante places barrators in the Eighth Circle, fifth pit of Hell.

References

1. ''People v. Sanford'', 202 Cal. App. Supp. 1 (App. Dept. Sup. Ct 1988); 18 Pa.C.S. 5109. [1]

See also

★ Abuse of process

★ Champerty

★ Forum shopping

★ Malicious prosecution

★ SLAPP

★ Vexatious litigation

★ Legal advertising