republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-2391.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Civil actions: vexatious litigants."
description: "Existing law permits a court, on its own motion or the motion of any party, to enter a prefiling order prohibiting a vexatious litigant from filing any new litigation in propria persona without first obtaining leave of the presiding judge of the court where the litigation is proposed to be filed. Existing law permits a presiding judge or a presiding justice to allow a vexatious litigant's filing only under specified circumstances, and permits the presiding judge to condition the filing upon the furnishing of security."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 2391"
citation: "California AB 2391 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil actions: vexatious litigants."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cunningham"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 19
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2022-02-17"
last_action: "2022-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/dca49ee4-d678-40cf-b8b0-3f05a989a48a"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2391"
source_hash: "a6e242b6cd6db97438d5a954c828ca1ccb4ade82359ecff0c97b9d191ed1f85f"
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-ca"]
---

# California AB 2391 (20212022) — Civil actions: vexatious litigants.

Existing law permits a court, on its own motion or the motion of any party, to enter a prefiling order prohibiting a vexatious litigant from filing any new litigation in propria persona without first obtaining leave of the presiding judge of the court where the litigation is proposed to be filed. Existing law permits a presiding judge or a presiding justice to allow a vexatious litigant's filing only under specified circumstances, and permits the presiding judge to condition the filing upon the furnishing of security.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/17/22 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2391&version=20210AB239199INT)
2. **03/16/22 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2391&version=20210AB239198AMD)
3. **05/27/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2391&version=20210AB239197AMD)
4. **07/01/22 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2391&version=20210AB239195CHP)
5. **AB2391** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2391)
6. **06/21/22 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2391&version=20210AB239196ENR)

## Votes

- AB 2391 Cunningham Consent Calendar Second Day — **68–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar AB2391 — **35–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2391 Cunningham Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **71–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **9–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cunningham — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2022-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2022-03-03** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2022-03-16** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-03-17** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2022-03-22** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (March 22). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-03-23** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-03-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 68. Noes 0. Page 4048.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-03-28** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2022-05-04** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2022-05-27** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-09** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 8). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-13** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-06-16** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 4265.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-06-16** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after June 18 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2022-06-20** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 71. Noes 0.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-29** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11 a.m.
- **2022-07-01** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2022-07-01** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 84, Statutes of 2022. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/dca49ee4-d678-40cf-b8b0-3f05a989a48a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).