---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO COURTS AND CIVIL PROCEDURE - COURTS -- ABUSIVE LITIGATION (Prohibits abusive litigation context of domestic violence or stalking and allow the court to dismiss a case upon finding, by preponderance of the evidence, that the person who filed the case is abusing the system.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO COURTS AND CIVIL PROCEDURE - COURTS -- ABUSIVE LITIGATION (Prohibits abusive litigation context of domestic violence or stalking and allow the court to dismiss a case upon finding, by preponderance of the evidence, that the person who filed the case is abusing the system.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2023"
identifier: "SB 604"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 604 (2023)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil Procedure", "Courts", "Criminal Procedure", "Domestic Relations", "Victims of Crime"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cano", "DiMario", "Euer", "Gallo", "LaMountain", "Mack", "Pearson", "Quezada", "Sosnowski", "Tikoian"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2023-03-07"
last_action: "2023-06-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/14e62431-f10b-495e-acb4-a61742eadfe3"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "6a6b422a0afce9c1239760f66864d8266d8181076bea08c49df9a30713e97cf3"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 604 (2023) — AN ACT RELATING TO COURTS AND CIVIL PROCEDURE - COURTS -- ABUSIVE LITIGATION (Prohibits abusive litigation context of domestic violence or stalking and allow the court to dismiss a case upon finding, by preponderance of the evidence, that the person who filed the case is abusing the system.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **604 SUB A** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText23/SenateText23/S0604A.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- IN CONCURRENCE — **68–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cano — primary (person)
- DiMario — primary (person)
- Euer — primary (person)
- Gallo — primary (person)
- LaMountain — primary (person)
- Mack — primary (person)
- Pearson — primary (person)
- Quezada — primary (person)
- Sosnowski — primary (person)
- Tikoian — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2023-03-07** 03/07/2023 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-03-24** 03/24/2023 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (03/28/2023)
- **2023-03-28** 03/28/2023 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
- **2023-06-02** 06/02/2023 Scheduled for consideration (06/06/2023)
- **2023-06-05** 06/05/2023 Proposed Substitute `substitution`
- **2023-06-06** 06/06/2023 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-07** 06/07/2023 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/13/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-06-08** 06/08/2023 Senate passed Sub A `passage`
- **2023-06-09** 06/09/2023 Referred to House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2023-06-10** 06/10/2023 Scheduled for consideration (06/12/2023)
- **2023-06-12** 06/12/2023 Committee recommends passage of Sub A in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-12** 06/12/2023 Placed on House Calendar (06/13/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-06-13** 06/13/2023 House passed Sub A in concurrence `passage`
- **2023-06-15** 06/15/2023 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2023-06-20** 06/20/2023 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/14e62431-f10b-495e-acb4-a61742eadfe3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).