Emergency Injunctions

What an Emergency Injunction Is

There is no separate order called an emergency injunction. You are asking for one of the two protective orders in Part 4 of the Family Law Act 1996: a non-molestation order, which forbids the person named from molesting you or a relevant child and, where the court thinks it appropriate, follows the template order at Annex 1 to the President's guidance in forbidding contact and going to any place where you live, are staying or work, or an occupation order, which decides who may live in or enter the family home. That no contact term is not absolute: the template allows contact through solicitors or an agreed third party to arrange time with the children, and allows evidence to be served.

The court can only make them between associated persons. Section 62(3) includes: current and former spouses, civil partners and cohabitants, relatives, people who have lived in the same household, other than as an employee, tenant, lodger or boarder, people who agreed to marry, people who have had an intimate personal relationship of significant duration, parents of the same child, and people who have parental responsibility for the same child. An application resting on an agreement to marry must be brought within three years of the engagement ending, and needs written evidence of it, an engagement ring given in contemplation of marriage, or a witnessed ceremony. If no category fits, Part 4 is not the route, and a civil injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 may be.

Urgency is not limited to physical violence. Section 1 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 defines domestic abuse between people aged 16 or over who are personally connected, and covers threatening behaviour, coercive or controlling behaviour, economic abuse and psychological, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, whether a single incident or a course of conduct. A child under 18 who sees, hears or experiences the effects of that abuse, and is related to either person, is a victim in their own right.

If you are in immediate danger, call 999; the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free on 0808 2000 247. Where the risk is a marriage you have not agreed to, or abuse in the name of so-called honour, see forced marriage protection orders and honour-based abuse.

When the Court Can Act Before a Hearing

The power to act before the other person has been told is in section 45 of the Family Law Act 1996. The court may do so where it considers that just and convenient, having regard to all the circumstances including:

• any risk of significant harm to you or a relevant child, attributable to the conduct of the person named, if the order is not made immediately;
• whether you are likely to be deterred or prevented from pursuing the application if it is not made immediately;
• whether the person named knows about the proceedings but is deliberately evading service, so that you or a child would be seriously prejudiced by the delay.

The court must then give the person named an opportunity to make representations at a full hearing. Section 45 sets no test of exceptionality, but the Family Court held in R v R and in DS v AC that such an order should only be made in exceptional circumstances, and the President of the Family Division's guidance, effective from 12 January 2026, adds that they are the exception rather than the rule, though exceptional does not mean rare.

Acting first can be right where the evidence shows a pattern of coercive control and the court thinks you could be pressured into withdrawing. Interference with the other person's rights must stay proportionate, and an order barring them from their home or workplace needs specific evidence. See our page on without notice applications.

The Evidence an Urgent Application Needs

Part 10 of the Family Procedure Rules requires a witness statement in support, and where the application is made without notice that statement must give the reasons why notice has not been given. Family Justice Council guidance for practitioners says it should:

• cover the incidents and patterns of abuse, their impact and any corroborating evidence;
• justify each term sought, including any exclusion zone;
• deal with the section 45 criteria where notice is not being given;
• set out any vulnerability.

Applying without notice also carries a duty of candour: the court must have all the material facts, including those that do not help you.

Terms forbidding pestering or molesting are hard to enforce, so a clear ban on contact and on going to named places is stronger. It still has to be proportionate: the guidance says barring all communication is unlikely to be appropriate where there are children or other family proceedings are running.

How an Urgent Application Works

1. We take your instructions, screen for the whole range of abuse and advise on the remedies.
2. We complete form FL401, draft your statement and the order, and file them at your local court.
3. Courts should refer applications for a non-molestation order to a judge on the day of issue if that is before 4pm, or the next working day if later.
4. The guidance sets out three courses the judge may take: make the order on the papers with a return date no more than 28 days away; refuse to act without notice and list the application on notice within 21 days, leaving you 2 working days to ask for that decision to be reconsidered at a hearing listed within 5 working days; or list a hearing for you to attend within 1 working day. Only in exceptional circumstances, such as where the association test is clearly not met, can the application be dismissed on the papers, and that order must give a right to review at an oral hearing.
5. Personal service by bailiff or process server is the starting point, and a copy of a non-molestation order must be delivered to the police: by the court where it serves the order, otherwise by you or your solicitor. Until the other person is aware of a non-molestation order made without notice, breaking it is not yet a criminal offence, so getting it served is part of the protection.
6. The order must record that it was made in the other person's absence, on your evidence alone, with no findings of fact, and tell them they may apply to set it aside without waiting for the return date.
7. At the return hearing the court decides whether the order continues. The person named may agree to it continuing, may say they do not oppose it on the basis that no findings of fact are made, or may oppose it.

The court may ask whether the person named will give an undertaking, a formal promise to the court, instead of an order. It must not accept one instead of a non-molestation order where it appears they have used or threatened violence against you or a relevant child and an order is necessary so that breach can be punished as a criminal offence, nor instead of an occupation order where a power of arrest would be attached. Either party can later apply to vary, extend or discharge an order. Enforcement is covered on our page about a breach of a non-molestation order.

Out of Hours and Other Urgent Routes

The police answer what cannot wait, and the criminal process runs separately; a protective injunction may not be granted where protection already in place, such as bail conditions with the same terms and duration, is considered effective. Practice guidance says an out of hours hearing should only be sought where the application could not reasonably have been made in usual court hours and needs deciding before the next working day, where it is a matter only the High Court or a senior judge can deal with, and it must be on notice unless there are compelling and cogent reasons. An ordinary Part 4 application does not usually meet that, so it waits for court hours.

Domestic abuse protection orders are a third route: you can only apply where the person you need protection from lives in a pilot area. The pilot areas are Greater Manchester, the London boroughs of Croydon, Bromley or Sutton, the districts of Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees, and North Wales. GOV.UK explains how to apply for a domestic abuse protection order.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

• You are unsure the association test is met, for example where the relationship was short or you never lived together.
• You need the other person to leave the home. If you have a right to occupy it, section 33 engages the balance of harm test: where you or a child are likely to suffer significant harm from their conduct without an order, the court must make one unless the harm they or a child would suffer if it is made is as great or greater.
• Children proceedings are running alongside, and courts are expected to bring parallel cases together early: see domestic abuse and child arrangements and child arrangements orders.
• You have been served with an order made in your absence, and what you say in response matters, because breaking a non-molestation order is a criminal offence.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

We are at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, near Tower Bridge. Founded by solicitor Rakesh Prajapati, the firm offers a free 15-minute consultation on 0203 345 2000. We are privately funded and do not offer legal aid, so if you need legal aid you will need a provider who does that work.

We will tell you honestly what would strengthen your evidence. See our domestic abuse and injunctions service or book an appointment.