No person can be convicted of common barratry except upon proof that he has excited suits or proceedings at law in at least three instances, and with a corrupt or malicious intent to vex and annoy.
Cal. Penal Code § 159
Other Offenses Against Public Justice
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 69 Cal. App. 4th 1341 - Trear v. Sills (1999)
Most recently applied in Accrued Financial Services, Inc. v. Prime Retail, Inc. (July 2002)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.