[MRM]

What that guy did isn't common, but it's not all that unusual. All courts have special procedures for handling people like that. A lot of times the people who do it are prisoners. They have some legal sophistication and a lot of time on their hands. If you noticed, the guy got the caption and format right for a federal suit, even if it was handwritten. The reason suits like this aren't more common is because most people have to pay a filing fee. Prisoners and other low income people sometimes get their filing fees waived.

I've been involved with defending "lawsuits" like this a few times. You can get sanctions against them, but what's the point? At some point they file enough suits that you can bring a motion to bar them from filing any more suits without prior approval by a judge. Once I had to deal with a militia guy who would serve papers purporting to file suit against anyone who answered one of his insane "lawsuits". It's a little disconcerting to see your name on the caption but they're pretty easy to handle. The judge would get protective of you after he was named as a so-called defendant too and the cases got dismissed quickly. At least it makes the day a little more interesting.