Another danger caused by abusive / vexatious pro se litigants is their abuse of the subpoena process. While most states require pro se litigants to submit an affidavit to a judge to seek judicial approval to obtain subpoenas (another form of judicial review), astoundingly there are some states that still allow pro se litigants to pay a small fee of $5.00 to $6.00 for each subpoena simply filed with the court clerk without demonstrating any valid legal need for those subpoenas. With those subpoenas pro se litigants can abuse the subpoena process and obtain within a few days all kinds of personal information about their victims such as car registration, banking information, property information, employment information, etc., even though they have no need for this private information for their lawsuit. For all intents and purposes this abuse of subpoenas is legalized identity theft and some state courts do not notify defendants of any subpoenas taken out by plaintiffs. Very quick acting victims and their attorneys who keep a daily eye on court filings by a pro se litigant can request a judge to issue an immediate quashing of those subpoenas and request that the pro se litigant obtain judicial approval for any subsequent filings for subpoenas. But every minute counts in order to get an immediate ruling by a judge to quash the subpoenas and notify the recipients of those subpoenas not to comply per order of the court.
