Our Family Team has in-depth expertise in obtaining emergency injunctions to protect our clients' best interests. We specialise in both domestic violence injunctions and property injunctions.

The domestic violence injunction process
A domestic violence injunction can be obtained as part of divorce proceedings or separately. Our lawyers are sensitive to the difficulties that surround domestic violence and have experience of complex cases.

There are two types of domestic violence injunction:

• Non-molestation Orders
• Occupation Order

Non-molestation Orders

A Non-molestation Order can be made to protect either an adult or child, or both. It can protect a person from harassment, pestering, intimidation and from the threat of violence and can also prohibit the threatening or violent person from instructing someone else to harass, pester, intimidate or threaten violence.

It can also protect a person from actual violent behaviour, as well as the threat of it, and against the associated person instructing another person to be violent towards an adult or child.

Occupation Orders

An Occupation Order is an injunction in relation to property and can determine who should live in a property in the short-term after violence or harassment. It can exclude a person who owns or has an interest in the property from either part or the whole of the property and can also enable a person who has been wrongly excluded from their property to return to it.

The property injunction process

If you are getting divorced and become aware of, or are concerned of, the risk that your spouse is trying to get rid of valuable property or money so that you cannot make a claim against them, we can make an emergency application to the Court for an order to stop them. This is called a Freezing Order.

Our Family Lawyers have expertise in property injunctions and have represented clients in cases involving substantial assets.

We apply for the injunction on your behalf in the High Court. In family cases, we can apply through the County Court, but the Court can decide to transfer it to the High Court.

You can ask the Court to make an emergency order preventing your opponent transferring, getting rid of or passing property to someone else and for them to reveal whether they have disposed of any property or money.

However, you have to promise the Court that you will pay your opponent's costs if you eventually lose your case or if there was not a good reason for asking the Court to approve the injunction.

Copies of the injunction can be sent to your opponent's bank or building society to stop your opponent disposing of their property or money. However, this will not prevent your partner from withdrawing money for their living expenses.