A plaintiff has issued a writ of defamation to 16 people and is serving it himself, harassing and antagonising the defendants as he goes. Most of them are women.
Is this grounds for putting a restraining order on him?
In Western Australia a misconduct restraining order (MRO) is available to protect persons from someone else who is behaving in a way that is intimidating or offensive towards them or causing damage to their property or acting in a way that may lead to a breach of the peace.
A misconduct restraining order can only be used in situations where the person perpetrating the wrongs is not a family member or related to you. In order to successfully obtain an MRO you need to show that the other person is acting in a way that could reasonably make you fee intimidated or offended and would in fact actually intimidate or offend you or cause damage to your property or act in a way that is or may lead to a breach of the peace (which may include regular screaming or shouting in public, protesting in a way that prevents people carrying out their work, intimidating people who are trying to use a public open space). It is up to the court as to wehther it thinks such an order would be appropriate in the circumstances. screaming and shouting in a public place.
You may also wish to initiate an application to have him declared a vexatious litigant. Here is a link to the Act which gives the court power to deal with vexatious litigants. VEXATIOUS PROCEEDINGS RESTRICTION ACT 2002 - SECT 4
