Harassment injunction cost: what an injunction and a disclosure order cost

A harassment injunction is not a fixed-price product, but the figures are knowable and the case can be taken in stages, so you decide at each one. A disclosure order to identify an anonymous harasser starts at £5,000 plus VAT. Injunction proceedings cost from the low tens of thousands of pounds to considerably more, depending on the circumstances of each case. A good number of cases never reach either, because the person is identified and written to first, and that ends it.

The question behind the question is normally whether you can afford to do anything at all. This article sets out what each stage costs and why, what makes a case expensive, whether the harasser can be made to pay, and how the work can be paid for. It covers England and Wales.

How knowing who they are changes the price of everything else

The largest saving in a harassment case comes from knowing who you are dealing with before you go anywhere near a court. We have had an open-source intelligence department in-house for more than a decade, staffed by people trained in the work, with access to databases and techniques most law firms do not hold. Identification done in-house costs a fraction of a disclosure order, and it is quicker, because nobody is waiting on a court list or on a platform's legal department in California.

Where we identify the person, or find a link that points to them, we can write to them directly and in confidence before any proceedings are issued. The effect of that letter is out of all proportion to what it costs. Somebody who has spent a year believing they are untraceable opens a letter that names them, describes what they have been doing and sets out what happens next. In many of our cases a matter the client expected to fight for a year is over inside a fortnight, with no claim form, no court fee and no disclosure order.

People who were certain they could not be found are so taken aback at being named in a letter that the harassment stops before a claim is ever issued. That is the cheapest result in this area of law, and it is the one we look for first.

That route is not open to every firm. Most send the investigative work outside or go straight to court for the same name, which is the expensive way to get it. It is also why we ask about your budget at the beginning rather than at the end. Where the money is limited, spending it on identification first is the best value in the case, and we would rather shape the work around what you can afford than quote you for a full court case you may not need. If you are not sure the budget stretches at all, a consultation is still worth having, because the options are rarely the ones people arrive expecting. Our guide to exposing internet trolls explains how the work is done.

Where the money goes

Most harassment cases move through the same sequence, and not every case needs every part of it. That is the point of taking them one at a time.

It starts with a consultation at a fixed fee, shown below, which you leave knowing what the options are and what each would cost. Then comes the evidence, which means preserving the posts, messages and pages with their dates and their links in a form a court will accept. That is labour-intensive and it is the work everything else rests on, so it is the last place to economise. Where the harasser is anonymous, identification follows, in-house first and by court order only if that is not enough. Then the solicitor's letter to stop harassment, which sets out the conduct, the law and what you require. If the letter is ignored, the harassment injunction follows: claim form, application, witness statement, draft order, the hearing, service and the return date. Enforcement, if it comes to that, means a warrant for arrest or a prosecution for breach.

Work done at an early stage is not lost if the case goes further. The evidence gathered for the letter is the evidence that goes in front of the judge, and the letter itself helps at the injunction stage, because it shows the court the person was warned and carried on anyway.

What a disclosure order costs

Disclosure orders against social media companies, search engines and hosts start at £5,000 plus VAT. What moves the figure is the volume of evidence and how many accounts have to be covered. Where we apply for two or more orders in the same case, the cost per order is lower, because a good deal of the work is shared between them.

Not every case needs one, and there are cases where we advise against it even though we could apply. Where the account was opened on a burner email over public wifi, the order can come back with nothing worth having, and you have paid for the privilege. A court also needs to be satisfied that the order is necessary and that it is proportionate, weighing what you need against the account holder's own rights, which the Supreme Court set out in Rugby Football Union v Consolidated Information Services Ltd [2012] UKSC 55. In our experience an application that would have gone through a few years ago now gets asked harder questions, and there are cases where we take the view the court is unlikely to grant it and say so. We would rather tell you that before you spend the money than afterwards. Norwich Pharmacal orders for social media covers the court route in detail.

What injunction proceedings cost, and what moves the figure

Injunction proceedings cost from the low tens of thousands of pounds to considerably more, depending on the circumstances of each case. The range is wide because the things that drive it are wide.

Whether the defendant is known is the first of them. An anonymous harasser adds the identification stage and, in many cases, an application for permission to serve the order by another route. Whether the case is defended is the second, and it is the largest single swing in the figure: an order the other side does not contest, or converts into undertakings at the return hearing, costs a fraction of a case fought to a contested hearing. The volume of evidence is the third, because two years of posts across five platforms is a different exercise from a fortnight of messages. Urgency is the fourth: an emergency injunction concentrates 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. And some of it sits outside anybody's control. A hearing adjourned to another date is another hearing to pay for, and a platform or a third party may decide to object.

Court fees are separate from our charges and are set by the government. The current amounts are in the EX50 schedule of civil court fees.

What people actually ask about money

The call about cost is rarely a call about cost. People apologise for asking the price, or open with the amount they have and an assumption that it is not enough, and a fair number have already decided the answer before dialling. What they are really asking is whether somebody like them, with a sum like that, gets to do anything at all.

The useful answer is almost never a single number. It is which step, out of the several available, would change their situation most for the money they have. Sometimes that is the identification work and a letter, and nothing further is needed. Sometimes it is evidence preservation now, because the posts are being deleted and edited, with the decision about court taken later. We have had clients spend a few thousand pounds and end the problem, and clients who were told at the consultation that the case was not worth the money and left with a plan they could carry out themselves.

Getting your costs back from the harasser

Sometimes, in part. Under Part 44 of the Civil Procedure Rules the general rule is that the unsuccessful party pays the successful party's costs, though the court has a discretion and takes the conduct of both sides into account.

Two qualifications are worth knowing before you count on it. Recovery is rarely complete, because an assessment allows a proportion of what was actually spent rather than all of it. And an order is only as good as the person's means: a judgment for costs against somebody with no assets is a piece of paper, and enforcing it costs money of its own. Where the harasser has a house, a business or an income worth enforcing against, the calculation changes, and it is something we look at early rather than at the end.

Damages can be awarded alongside the injunction, for the anxiety the harassment caused as well as for financial loss, and awards in harassment cases commonly range from the low thousands to the low tens of thousands of pounds. They are worth having, though they are rarely the reason people come.

Ways to pay

Stage by stage is the default. You get a written estimate for each step and you decide before each one begins, which means the commitment at any moment is the next step rather than the whole case. In some cases we can act on a no win no fee basis once we have assessed the prospects, which suits a case with a strong evidential position and a defendant worth suing.

Legal expenses insurance is worth checking before anything else, because it is attached to a great many home contents and motor policies and people do not know they have it until they look. Legal aid is not generally available for civil harassment claims of this kind, though you can check your own position on the government's legal aid checker. Our page on harassment legal costs covers funding across the whole of our harassment work.

Cases, and what they cost to achieve

These are matters we acted in. Identifying details have been changed in the anonymised accounts.

A hate website taken down after one letter

An anonymous website had targeted our client for more than a decade. Our open-source intelligence team traced it to its owner in spite of a false name on the registration. One letter, with the evidence set out, and the site came down. No court, no disclosure order, and a bill measured in thousands rather than tens of thousands. Read what to do if someone creates a harassing website about you.

A letter ignored, and then an injunction

A former temporary interpreter at the International Maritime Organisation built four websites attacking his former manager. He did not answer our letter, so we applied to court, and Mr Justice Cranston granted the injunction and ordered the sites deleted. The letter was not wasted: it was the evidence that he had been warned and had carried on. Read about a harassment injunction following online harassment of a former employer, and more of our online harassment case studies.

The first consultation

You leave the consultation with a view on the strength of the case, the realistic options and a written estimate for the next step. If your budget is limited, say so then. It changes the order we do things in rather than whether we can help, and the identification work described above is what makes a good number of cases affordable at all. You can read more about how we act for victims on our harassment solicitors page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a harassment injunction cost?

Injunction proceedings cost from the low tens of thousands of pounds to considerably more, depending on the circumstances of each case. The main drivers are whether the defendant is known, whether the case is defended, how much evidence there is and how urgent it is. A good number of harassment cases are resolved before that stage by identifying the person and writing to them.

How much does a disclosure order cost?

Disclosure orders against social media companies, search engines or hosts start at £5,000 plus VAT. Where two or more orders are needed in the same case, the cost per order is lower because a good deal of the work is shared.

Can I make the harasser pay my legal costs?

Sometimes, in part. The general rule under the Civil Procedure Rules is that the unsuccessful party pays the successful party's costs, but recovery is a proportion rather than everything, and an order is only worth what the person can actually pay.

Is a solicitor's letter cheaper than going to court?

Considerably. It is the least expensive step in a harassment case and it ends a large share of them, particularly where the person has a job, a business or a reputation to protect. Where it is ignored, the letter still earns its keep at the injunction stage, because it shows the court the person was warned.

Do I have to pay everything up front?

No. The work is done in stages, with a written estimate for each, and there are natural break points where you can decide whether to carry on.

Can I get legal aid for a harassment injunction?

Legal aid is not generally available for civil harassment claims of this kind. You can check your own position using the government's legal aid checker. Legal expenses insurance attached to a home or motor policy is worth checking as well, because many people have it without realising.

What are the court fees?

Court fees are separate from a solicitor's charges and are set by the government. The current amounts are published in the EX50 schedule of civil court fees.

What if I cannot afford a full court case?

Tell us at the consultation. The order we do things in changes with the budget, and the cheapest effective step is identifying the person through our in-house open-source intelligence work and writing to them in confidence, which resolves a good number of cases without proceedings at all. Where court action is still needed, the work is staged so you decide at each point, and in some cases we can act on a no win no fee basis.

Does an emergency application cost more?

Yes, at the outset. An urgent application compresses into two or three days work that would otherwise be spread over weeks, and the court fee and counsel's fee fall due immediately. It can still be the cheaper course overall where it stops something that would be expensive to undo.