State's highest court to Dorchester man: Enough, already

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today it is fed up with a Dorchester man who keeps filing lawsuits and appeals against judges, court clerks, prosecutors, police and his own lawyer.

The court took the unusual step of ordering court clerks to refuse to even accept a single filing from Lawrence Watson "unless it is accompanied by a motion for leave to file, and shall not docket the petition or appeal unless and until the full court grants the motion on making a preliminary determination that the petitioner has no other adequate remedy and that he has furnished the court with a record that substantiates his claims."

The justices were so fed up their ruling doesn't even specify the basic issue over which Watson filed five appeals against individual SJC justices, but says it is tired of hearing appeals with absolutely no merit or basis in law. Last year, the court ruled against Watson in an ongoing effort to get his name expunged from court records stemming from a 2003 assault case in Dorchester District Court. And the court warned him then to knock it off.

In the full court alone, not including the five appeals that are currently before us, we have already decided sixteen appeals in four years, each of which sought full court review of single justice denials of his petitions for extraordinary relief. In each instance we affirmed the single justice's ruling. All of these cases were meritless. All of the petitions and appeals failed for the same reasons, i.e., because Watson had available to him adequate alternative remedies, because he had failed to provide a record substantiating his allegations and supporting his claims, or both.

• Complete ruling
• List of cases filed by Watson