Activist shareholders have become a major burden to some corporations by causing the company to spend as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars just to prepare for numerous ballots on diverse proposals.

The process also takes time away from busy attorneys, finance specialists, accountants and others in a corporation who must review the proposals and prepare the votes. Granted, some of their proposals have made sense and have helped to improve the company's bottom line, but other ideas simply clog up everyone's schedule.

In response, Leo Strine, the new chief justice of Delaware, has proposed the idea that activist shareholders – every time they come up with a proposal – must fork over a filing fee of anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 if the proposal relates to economic issues, so that they “bear some of the costs they impose.”