An emergency harassment injunction is a court order obtained at speed, to stop something happening that you cannot undo afterwards. It is made in a civil claim under section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Where there is good reason, a judge can make it without telling the other side first, and out of hours if it will not keep until the morning. Where the papers are ready, that can mean a day or two, and sometimes hours.
People come to us at a particular moment. A deadline has been set, or a message has arrived saying that something goes online tonight, or gets sent to an employer, a spouse or a congregation in the morning. What follows is what a court can do about that, how quickly, and what it asks of you in return.
What an emergency order is, and what it is not
It is the same remedy as a standard harassment injunction, applied for in a hurry. The judge is not deciding who is right. They are holding the position still until both sides can be heard properly, which is why the order comes with a date to come back.
Two things about it catch people out. The first is that it is temporary. An order made without the other side there lasts until a return date, usually a week or two later, and at that hearing they can turn up and argue. The second is that it is made on your evidence alone, which means your statement needs to set out everything relevant, including the parts that help them. Leave something material out and the order can be discharged at the return hearing, with the costs following.
You will also see the phrase "without notice" on the paperwork. It used to be called "ex parte", and some people still say that, but the Civil Procedure Rules use the plainer term now.
The judge is not deciding who is right. They are stopping the clock, so that what is about to happen to you does not happen before anyone has heard your side of it.
When a court will act this quickly
Urgency by itself is not enough, because the court is being asked to restrain someone it has not heard from. In practice a judge is looking for a real claim properly evidenced, for the fact that money afterwards would not put this right, and for a reason why telling the other side first would defeat the purpose.
The second of those is usually the strongest part of a harassment case. Damages do not un-send a photograph to somebody's family, and they do not take a video back off a website once thousands of people have seen it. That is the argument that carries weight at eleven at night, not the procedural detail.
Where the order would stop something being published, there is a higher hurdle under section 12(3) of the Human Rights Act 1998. The court needs to be satisfied that you are likely to establish at trial that publication should not be allowed. It is the reason the evidence needs to be put together properly even when the clock is against you, and the reason a rushed application by someone who has not done this before tends to fail.
How fast, and what happens at night and at weekends
Where the papers are ready, an application can be in front of a judge the same day. In our experience the limiting factor is almost never the court. It is how long it takes to gather the evidence and put it in a form a judge can act on.
Within court hours the papers go in ahead of the hearing, and the rules expect at least a couple of hours where that is possible. Outside them, a duty judge of the High Court is available at night and at weekends, and those hearings are commonly held by telephone or video. A judge can also make the order before the claim has even been issued, on your solicitor's undertaking to issue it immediately afterwards. Once it is made, a note of the hearing is taken and served on the other side along with the order and the evidence, so they know exactly what was said in their absence.
If you think you may need an emergency order at some point, tell us before you need it. Preparing the evidence in advance is what turns a two-week job into a two-hour one when the moment arrives.
What the order can require
The order spells out what the person may not do, in terms clear enough that there is no argument later about whether they have broken it. In an urgent case that tends to mean no contact with you at all, direct or through anyone else, and nothing further published about you, including from a new account opened the next day.
It can require what is already up to come down within a stated period, and it can require the person to preserve their devices, accounts and messages, so the evidence still exists by the time of the return hearing. Where publicity would make things worse, we ask at the same time for an order anonymising your name. And where the harasser is anonymous, the defendant can be described by their conduct and their accounts rather than by name, with the court allowing service by another route. That is how we came to serve an injunction through Instagram.
What you give up in return
Two things come with an urgent order, and it is better to hear them now than at the hearing.
The first is a promise to the court, called a cross-undertaking in damages, to pay any losses the other side suffers if it later turns out the order should not have been made. In most harassment cases the exposure is small, because a person told to stop harassing loses nothing of value by stopping. We go through it with you before you give it.
The second is the duty to tell the judge everything relevant, including what the other side would say if they were there. That feels counterintuitive when you are the one who has been wronged, and it is the single commonest reason urgent orders come apart later. We would rather put the difficult point in ourselves, in our own words, than have it produced against you at the return hearing.
When an emergency application is not the right move
An urgent application costs more than a measured one and spends the element of surprise. It is the wrong first step where nothing is about to happen that cannot be undone, and where a solicitor's letter to stop harassment would get you the same result inside a week for a fraction of the money.
It is also the wrong move where the real problem is that nobody knows who this person is. Identifying them comes first, through our own open-source intelligence work and, where that is not enough, Norwich Pharmacal orders for social media.
If you are in immediate physical danger, call 999. Our article on reporting harassment to the police: what happens next, and when to sue explains how the criminal and civil routes fit together, and they can be used at the same time.
Blackmail and threats to publish private information
Emergency orders are also used where someone threatens to publish private images or information unless they are paid. That work sits with our sister practice, the Internet Law Centre, which handles blackmail and extortion and has obtained emergency orders in those cases, including anonymised orders against people who could not be named. You can read about an emergency blackmail injunction obtained by the Internet Law Centre. Where the same person is also harassing you, we act on the harassment side and the two matters proceed together.
What these calls are actually like
Urgent instructions rarely arrive in office hours. They come in the evening, from someone who has been staring at a message for an hour trying to decide whether it is a bluff, and who has usually not told anybody else yet. The first question is almost never about the law. It is whether anything can be done tonight.
The answer depends on what can be evidenced in the next few hours, which is why the first thing we ask for is the material itself, not the story. People are surprised that a judge is available at that hour at all, and more surprised at how much of the fear comes off once somebody else is carrying it.
Cases where we obtained urgent orders
These are matters we acted in. Identifying details have been changed in the anonymised accounts.
An injunction served through Instagram
Our client was targeted by an anonymous Instagram account that could not be traced by the usual routes. We obtained an injunction and persuaded the court to allow service through the platform itself, the first time that had been done in England and Wales. Read about serving an injunction via Instagram.
Four websites ordered deleted
A former temporary interpreter at the International Maritime Organisation built four websites about his former manager, using photographs taken without her consent. He ignored our letter, so we applied under the 1997 Act, and Mr Justice Cranston granted the injunction and ordered the sites deleted. Read about a harassment injunction following online harassment of a former employer.
A privacy injunction alongside the harassment claim
Where private information is being published as part of the harassment, we ask for a privacy injunction at the same time, commonly with an anonymity order. Read our privacy injunction case study, and more of our online harassment case studies.
What it costs
A first consultation is charged at a fixed, all-inclusive fee of £469. After it we give you a written estimate for each step, so that you decide stage by stage. Book a consultation with an online harassment solicitor.
An urgent application compresses into two or three days the work that would otherwise spread over weeks, and the court fee and counsel's fee fall due at once, so it costs more at the outset than a standard application. Our page on harassment injunction cost sets out the ranges and how to budget across the stages. You can read more about how we act for victims on our harassment solicitors page.
What you can realistically expect
Where the evidence is ready, the common outcome is an order within a day or two, served the same day, with the material down inside the period the order allows. At the return hearing most respondents give undertakings to the court rather than fight, which turns the emergency order into something lasting without a contested hearing.
Where an application is refused, it is usually because the urgency was not made out, or because a publication case did not reach the section 12(3) threshold. That is recoverable. The claim carries on and the application can be renewed on notice with better evidence.
Breach is treated seriously. You can apply for a warrant for the person's arrest, and breaching an order made under section 3 of the 1997 Act, without reasonable excuse, is a criminal offence carrying up to five years' imprisonment on conviction on indictment.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly can I get an emergency injunction?
Where the evidence is ready, an application can be in front of a judge the same day, and out of hours a duty judge of the High Court is available at night and at weekends. In practice the time goes on gathering and presenting the evidence rather than on waiting for the court.
Can I apply for an injunction without telling the harasser?
Yes, where there is good reason not to give notice, for example because warning them would lead to publication, to evidence being destroyed, or to an escalation against you. The court then fixes a return date at which the other side can attend and argue.
How long does an emergency injunction last?
An order made without notice lasts until the return date, usually a week or two later. At that hearing the court decides whether it continues until trial or further order. An order made with both sides present can be expressed to last until trial from the outset.
What is a cross-undertaking in damages?
It is your promise to the court to pay any losses the other side suffers if the injunction turns out to have been wrongly granted. Unless the court orders otherwise, an interim injunction contains one. In most harassment cases the exposure is limited, because a person told to stop harassing loses nothing of value.
What happens at the return hearing?
The other side can attend, put in their own evidence and ask the court to discharge the order. The court decides whether to continue it. In our experience most respondents offer undertakings at this point rather than contest the application.
Can the order be made against someone whose name I do not know?
In many cases, yes. The defendant can be described by their conduct and their accounts where that description is precise enough to identify who is bound, and the court can allow service by another route, such as through the platform itself.
Will my name appear in public court records?
Not necessarily. Where publicity would defeat the purpose of the application, a court can anonymise the parties and restrict reporting. We ask for that at the same time as the injunction where the case calls for it.
What happens if the harasser breaches the order?
You can apply for a warrant for their arrest, and breach without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence under section 3(6) of the 1997 Act, carrying up to five years' imprisonment on conviction on indictment. The same conduct cannot be both punished as a contempt of court and prosecuted.