News

New Podcast Series coming soon!

03/11/2025

'Control and the Law' is our new podcast series and focuses on Coercive Control and Stalking from a legal perspective.

Our first episode focuses on how the civil courts of England and Wales are being misused by stalkers and controlling people to continue their harassment and abuse of their victims. Barrister, Sarah Ellis, was joined by Claire Waxman, Independent Victims' Commissioner for London and Rachel Horman-Brown KC (Hon) in discussing this issue and what can be done to help victims.

The podcast identifies how this issue is widely under-recognised by professionals and the assumption that such claims are brought reasonably and in good faith by claimants, which is frequently not the case. Although the scale of the issue is not currently being captured officially, anecdotally it appears to be a growing trend.

Victims include those who were in an intimate relationships with a controlling person, those stalked by a stranger and individuals targeted by family and former friends. Crucially the courts are at risk of failing to identify these behaviours as part of a course of conduct and therefore the behaviour can be seen as a 'civil matter' and goes unchecked. Sanctions for misusing the legal system in this way are rare.

It is important that we recognise how frightening it can be for victims to face this type of harassment, especially as Legal Aid is not available and they will have to conduct their own litigation unless they have the financial resources to pay for their own legal representation. Costs can run into thousands of pounds and non-engagement in the court process can lead to judgment in default, County Court Judgments and adverse costs orders in some circumstances.

Claire and Rachel suggested a number of ways in which victims can be better protected, e.g. including prohibiting perpetrators from issuing claims in the civil courts within existing protective orders such as non-molestation injunctions and restraining orders, amendment and regular use of PD1A of the CPR and reforming Civil Restraint Orders to make them easier for victims to obtain and at an earlier stage.

The episode will shortly go live and we will post the link here.