The Attorney-General has moved to stop a jailed sex offender taking any more court actions without getting court permission.
Papers filed at the High Court in Auckland say Graham Ashley Robert Palmer, has started at least 18 actions.
Palmer, aged 54, is serving preventive detention for sex offences.
After a number of complaints to the Solicitor-General's office, the Attorney-General is seeking to have him declared a vexatious litigant.
That would mean he would have to ask a High Court judge for permission to start any new proceedings.
He would also need permission to continue with any of his current cases.
In papers filed in the High Court, Crown lawyers say Palmer has "persistently and without reasonable grounds instituted vexatious legal proceedings, and is likely to continue to do so unless restrained".
The Crown says most of Palmer's actions have been dismissed, struck out, stayed or declined.
In some cases large costs were awarded against him, but because of his "impecunious" position, there seemed little likelihood of the money being paid.
Palmer, who often appears in court to represent himself - accompanied by two prison guards - sees the figures differently.
In a memorandum to the court, which he also gave to the Herald, he says that since 1998, he has had 39 wins and 15 first round losses, which are subject to appeal or review.
"There are no finally decided losses, criminal or civil," he said.
Many of Palmer's civil proceedings, appeals and private prosecutions relate to his sex convictions at the Rotorua District Court in 1999 and at the High Court in Auckland in 2000, when he was sentenced to preventive detention.
In December 2001, Justice Peter Salmon struck out his $10 million claim that two Crown lawyers and his own lawyer conspired at his High Court sex trial.
Justice Salmon said Palmer had made the most serious allegations, but there was no basis on which the allegations against the three lawyers could proceed.
In a case against the maker of an automatic toilet, Judge Arthur Tompkins said it was an abuse of process and "should never have been commenced at all".
The Attorney-General's statement of claim notes that as well as making his conspiracy claims, Palmer has alleged perjury by Crown witnesses, bias by a trial judge, and bias by the president of the Court of Appeal.
He alleged in one case that the Governor-General, the Government and the Court of Appeal were predisposed against him.
He has made allegations of bias against four High Court or Court of Appeal judges and at least one district court judge.
He has also sought $60,000 from the Attorney-General for his costs in defending himself in his criminal case in the High Court and then the Court of Appeal.
A copy of a letter from the Privy Council says Palmer has a hearing next month relating to an action against the superintendent of Auckland Prison.
In 1988, Palmer was jailed for five years and eight months after duping the IRD out of $2.6 million in New Zealand's first GST fraud case.
Litigant's targets
Graham Ashley Robert Palmer has filed actions against:
* The Attorney-General.
* His former lawyer and two Crown prosecutors, alleging conspiracy.
* A psychiatrist who gave evidence on his behalf.
* The superintendent of Paremoremo prison.
* Telecom.
* The manufacturer of an automated public toilet.
* The IRD, seeking $6.5 million.
* Three police officers.
* The person he says was responsible for the sex offences of which he was convicted.
* Bluebird Foods.
* Law firm Bell Gully, and a real estate firm.
* A truck rental company.
* The Governor-General.
Crown bid to block courtroom blitz
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