Civil & Commercial

Protection does not have to wait for a criminal case to conclude.

Civil injunctions protecting individuals from harassment, stalking or domestic abuse, including non-molestation and occupation orders.

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Non-molestation orders

A non-molestation order under the Family Law Act 1996 protects a person from violence, threats or harassment by someone they are associated with, including a partner, former partner or family member. It can prohibit contact, prevent someone coming near a home or workplace, or stop specific threatening behaviour. Breaching a non-molestation order is a criminal offence in its own right, not just a civil contempt, which gives it real teeth.

Occupation orders

An occupation order regulates who can live in, or enter, the family home, and can exclude someone from the property or a defined area around it, regardless of whose name is on the title or tenancy. These are often sought alongside a non-molestation order where safety in the home itself is the issue.

Harassment does not require a relationship

Where there is no family or intimate relationship with the person responsible, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 provides a separate civil route: an injunction and damages for a course of conduct amounting to harassment, whether from an ex-partner, a neighbour, or a stranger.

Stalking specifically

Where the conduct amounts to stalking, a Stalking Protection Order provides an additional civil tool, generally applied for by the police, which can impose specific restrictions on the perpetrator even before, or separately from, a criminal conviction. This sits alongside the criminal offences of stalking, and the two routes can run in parallel.

Getting an order quickly

Where there is a genuine risk of harm, an application can be made urgently, in some cases without notifying the other person first, similar to other emergency injunctions. A power of arrest can be attached to an order, meaning police can arrest for a breach without needing a fresh application to the court.

Harassment & protective relief

Civil protection under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997

The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 prohibits a course of conduct amounting to harassment where the defendant knows or ought to know that it amounts to harassment. Section 3 creates a civil remedy and allows the court to award damages and grant an injunction. A course of conduct ordinarily requires conduct on at least two occasions, but context and the relationship between acts matter.

Hayes v Willoughby [2013] UKSC 17 considered the statutory defence based on preventing or detecting crime. The Supreme Court held that a person relying on that defence must have rationally applied their mind to material suggesting criminality and to whether the conduct was appropriate for that purpose; an obsessive or irrational campaign will not acquire protection merely because the harasser asserts a crime-prevention purpose.

Where protection is urgent, an interim injunction may also engage CPR Part 25. The application should identify the course of conduct, preserve messages, emails, posts, recordings and other evidence, explain the harm and specify workable prohibitions. Publication-based harassment may also engage the Media and Communications List and its specialist Pre-Action Protocol.

Key sources: Protection from Harassment Act 1997 ss1 and 3; CPR Part 25; Hayes v Willoughby [2013] UKSC 17.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a course of conduct?
The statute ordinarily requires conduct on at least two occasions. The acts do not have to be identical: calls, messages, attendance, online posts, monitoring and contact through third parties can form part of the alleged course depending on the facts.

Can online conduct amount to harassment?
Yes. Repeated online communications or publication can form part of a course of conduct. Publication cases can also engage defamation, privacy and data-protection law.

Can I obtain an injunction before a full trial?
Potentially. Interim relief may be sought where the evidence and urgency justify it. Without-notice relief is exceptional and carries additional duties to the court.

Can I claim compensation as well as an injunction?
Section 3 permits damages for, among other things, anxiety and financial loss caused by harassment. The amount depends on the evidence and circumstances.

What evidence should I keep?
Preserve original messages, emails, call logs, social-media URLs, screenshots, CCTV, recordings where lawfully held, witness details and a dated chronology. Do not edit original files where metadata may matter.

What if the other person says they were investigating a crime?
That can be a statutory defence in an appropriate case, but it is not unlimited. Hayes v Willoughby confirms that the asserted crime-prevention purpose must meet a rationality threshold.

Is civil action the same as making a police report?
No. Criminal investigation, police protective powers and a civil injunction are distinct routes. More than one route can sometimes be relevant to the same conduct.