On the board for a bulding you sue?

You'd stay on the board as long as you kept being elected, and your suit wouldn't necessarily trigger an election.

You'd be suing the co-op itself, not the board members indivdually, though even that has happened.

Review corporation bylaws for any processes by which board members can be removed prior to their terms ending.

And of course be prepared to recuse yourself as needed while your suit and issue is being discussed by the rest of the board.

First, use your existing mouthpiece (by virtue of your physical appearance at board meetings) to remind them the expense of litigation far exceeds the costs of remediating bedbugs or inspecting trashy neighbors

This reminds me of a woman who lived in a development with a lease fully negotiated on an arms-length basis, who subsequently was involved - with her husband who is a law partner - in a lawsuit because she wanted legal protections irrelevant to her arms-length negotiated market-rate lease but intended for the working class. So she received a windfall from the lawsuit, and then the rent goes up for everyone else in the community while she went to a new area where her kid couldn't to school on time because of the extended commute. Then she blamed other people because the extended commute translated to providing community service. Yup, she didn't want her kid to have to do service to the community despite taking money from a community and causing a community's rent to increase. And NO, this woman is not affiliated with Al Sharpton.

Bedbugs is one thing "Inspecting Trashy Neighbors" is another. There are legitimate reasons to inspect apartments for unsafe conditions or illegal construction. I have met some kooks on boards who have some sort of OCD that drives them into intruding on other shareholders privacy. If you are on the board and can't fix the bedbug issue I doubt a lawsuit would.

I'm not sure what to make of all this. There was a 6 month delay between my apt and the apt 2 floors above getting bedbugs, and the inspection of the apt between us. The building mgr continues to tell the building that we cannot make a renter get inspected. She publicly blamed me for bringing bugs in the bldg (allocation of blame proves ignorance). but then 6 months later discovered that the tenant in the in-between apartment had the worst case the exterminator had ever seen. The board president and building mgr seem to be playing games about letting me see the service records. They won't re-inspect. Thus we might have to go through that hell again.
We have other problems though, a dictatorial board president, who has been manipulating all kids of decisions. 3 out of 5 board members agree with me about almost everything, but the pres and his minion keep outmaneuvering us. It feels like a bit of a mess. And I've been living here 16 months and am afraid to unpack.