Today’s word of the day is barratry, which is, among other meanings, the offense of persistently instigating lawsuits, typically groundless ones. Someone who commits barratry is a barrator, a “a common mover and maintainer of suits and controversies.”

“He is such a litigious fellow, though; so persistent with it; barratry, champerty, mad incorrigibility: he’s the wildest man of genius alive.” (From The Entailed Hat Or, Patty Cannon’s Times.)