In a majority of jurisdictions, a successful abuse of process claim requires proof of three key elements: first, the defendant must have willfully used a legal process—such as a lawsuit, subpoena, or court order—in an improper manner; second, the process must have been used for an ulterior or collateral purpose that the legal system was not designed to achieve, such as harassment, extortion, or gaining an unfair advantage unrelated to the claim’s merits; and third, the plaintiff must demonstrate actual harm or damages resulting from this misuse. Critically, the claim does not depend on the outcome of the underlying case but focuses on the defendant’s intent to pervert the judicial mechanism for an illegitimate goal, distinguishing it from claims based merely on a lack of legal merit.
