You gotta understand, what you are asking for is very rare, and the courts are very hesitant to limit your rights as such. The "general philosophy" heavily relies on either state law or (in states where there isn't such status in the statutes (like I believe VA) ) on the way appellate courts decided to handle such pests. In places like Nevada or Utah the burden is extremely low. In
Nevada one frivolous motion is technically enough (although I have never seen it be lower than 5 lawsuits although even there the plaintiff had been shitting up the courts in literally all the states, and only had started shitting up Nevada. See O'Neal v. Zurich Ins. Co
., 2:18-cv-01677-RFB-BNW (D. Nev. Aug. 25, 2021) , where in
Utah losing five claims for relief, in 7 years is enough.
California (where this lawsuit takes place) requires five lost litigations in seven years. That being said usually the courts try to not attach a vexatious litigant status unless all other alternatives failed.
However, if I were to try to define a "general philosophy" of a annoyed court, it'd be a few warnings, sanctions, and only then the declaration. That being said, such declarations are to be very rare as it does severely limit the Plaintiff's right to the petition the courts.
Or not allow to file IFP at all.
They can do a whole lot with declaration of vexatious litigant, and every state has its favorite method. The most common ones I see is your first and third examples. California (where this lawsuit takes place) favors a bit of a different method. They like to issue a "
prefiling order that prohibits a vexatious litigant from filing any new litigation in California in [propria persona] without first obtaining permission from the presiding justice or presiding judge of the court where the filing is proposed" They even have a
list of all vexatious litigants in Cali (updated monthy)