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Understand where you can get help if someone close to you has been, or is being, violent or abusive to you. It also helps you prepare your statement for the court if you decide to apply for an injunction. You might need a non-molestation order or an occupation order, or both. We explain what these both mean.
The information in this guide applies to England and Wales only.
Last updated: November 2024
If you are, or have been, experiencing domestic abuse or violence you can get protection from the family court.
There is a type of court order called an 'injunction' that can protect you from domestic abuse. There are various steps to take to get this protection. But don't be put off, there is help out there. This short guide explains where you can get more help and gives you an overview of what you need to do and how to do it.
To work out if you should apply for this kind of order you need to get some legal advice.
You might be entitled to legal aid from a family law solicitor so before you do anything else make sure you find a solicitor to look at your finances and assess you for legal aid. Try not to be put off by the process – there is help out there!
Look at the Resolution website for a family law solicitor near you. But make sure they do legal aid as not all firms do. Look for the green tick below their name.
Do call round various solicitors to ask for an appointment about domestic abuse and to be assessed for legal aid. They will usually try very hard to fit you in as soon as possible when you explain your problem is about domestic abuse and you feel unsafe. You can use an online calculator first to see if you might be able to get legal aid and to see what information about your finances the solicitor will need.
If you are entitled to legal aid your solicitor will do all the work for you and support you through it. This will be far better for you than trying to do it by yourself. That is why it is really important to find out if you are entitled to legal aid.
Be aware, that sometimes people who are eligible for legal aid need to pay a contribution to the costs of their case.
If you are able to pay for advice or get legal aid you don't need to read the rest of this guide. You just need to work with your solicitor to get the protection you are entitled to.
If you canonot afford a solicitor, cannot get legal aid or can get legal aid but cannot afford a contribution you have been told you need to pay, go on to the next section for more help.
If you can’t get legal aid, can’t afford a contribution or can’t afford a solicitor you need to get some free legal advice to decide if you should apply for an injunction yourself.
Try and find a local solicitor who specialises in family law and who will give you a one-off free advice session. Alternatively, you can contact organisations that specialise in applying for injunctions. They should be able to help you for free.
FLOWS at RCJ Advice is a free legal advice service for women. FLOWS has a team of dedicated staff who can provide you with detailed information about injunctions, can help you decide whether you need to apply for one and can also advise you on the correct steps to take. You can contact the FLOWS team by phone and email.
FLOWS can also link you to their online tool, CourtNav. CourtNav will ask you questions that will then complete the application and the supporting statement for an injunction. Throughout CourtNav there is supporting guidance and help text to guide you through the process.
Your application will be checked by a family law solicitor, who can provide you with online legal advice to ensure that your application is ready for court.
If you get help from FLOWS you don't need to read the rest of this guide. They will take you through the process, step by step.
There are other places you can get free help from.
Rights of Women has a helpline that is run by lawyers in their own time. They have two helplines - so make sure you call the right one for you. There is one for women living in London and a different one for women living outside London.
The National Centre for Domestic Violence can advise you over the phone and can often help you through the whole process for free. This service is for anyone at risk of or suffering domestic abuse regardless of their financial situation, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
If you are advised by one of these organisations to ask the court for an injunction but you cannot get help to do this, go on to step 3.
To apply for an injunction you need to fill in a form and write a supporting statement. Your application needs to be made at your local family court, as soon as you can after the last incident of abuse, so that you are protected as soon as possible.
An injunction is a court order that requires someone to do or not do something. The name given to the type of injunction you need is a non-molestation order. You might also need an occupation order.
An occupation order is a kind of injunction which deals with who lives at or goes to the family home. The court can order that the other person has to move out or stay away from the home and keep a certain distance from it. If you have left because of the abuse or been forced out the court can order that the other person has to leave so that you can go back.
The form you need to use to apply for either or both of these orders is called the FL401 form. There is no court fee to pay for this form.
The form comes with guidance on how to fill it in. Read this carefully before you start.
You can print the form and hand write your answers or you can fill in your answers on the screen. Do whichever you feel more comfortable with. If you want to hand write your answers but you don’t have a printer you can get a free copy of the form from your nearest family court.
When you have done your form, you need to write your statement. We talk about this in the next section.
Next, you have to do your witness statement. This is like a long letter which gives all the background information to the court that it needs to decide whether or not to make the order you are asking for in your FL401 form. The court sees your form and statement. Be aware that the other person is allowed to see both documents too. This can a really scary thought but unfortunately there is no way around it.
We have helped with this part as it can be particularly hard to know how to do this. By now, you should have done your application form and decided what order or orders you are applying for. So, if you are applying for just a non-molestation order you need to go to the next section. If you are applying for a non-molestation order and an occupation order you need to go to the section after.
Alternatively, there is now a template statement form on the GOV.UK website that you can use. It asks you questions and by answering them it builds your statement.
This section is for you if you are doing the FL401 form to apply to the family court for only a non-molestation order, also known as an injunction. If you are going to apply for a non-molestation order and an occupation order you need to look at the section called How to write your statement for your FL401 form to apply for a non-molestation order and an occupation order.
On the left, is information to help you write your statement for the family court. It tells you all the things you should try to put in your statement and how to begin.
On the right is Sarah-Jane’s statement that she has written to support her FL401 form to apply for a non-molestation order. We have included it to show you what sort of details about your own situation you should include in your statement.
Only use this as a guide. Make sure you make your statement personal to you.
Front page of your statement Statements for the court need to be set out in a particular way with information in the top right hand corner and then the details of the case set out like we have done here. The case number is the unique number given to your case when you take your application to the court. They will add it and then it will be on all future court documents. The words in your statement need to be double spaced (for less confident computer users, you do this on MS Word by selecting the Home tab and selecting the line spacing option 2.0) and must only be printed on one side of the paper. Where it says ‘Sitting at’ you need to add the name of your local court. | Statement of the Applicant: S-J Coombs Statement no: 1 Exhibits: 1 Dated: 28/2/24 Case number:
IN THE FAMILY COURT SITTING AT................................. IN THE MATTER OF THE FAMILY LAW ACT 1996 BETWEEN:
Sarah-Jane Coombs Applicant and
Michael James Thompson Respondent
FIRST STATEMENT OF THE APPLICANT
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Introduction Explain who you are and who the person you want the order against is. Say how you are related, for example by saying you are applying for an order against your husband or ex-partner. If your address is confidential don’t put it here. Say it is confidential and you have given it to the court (you do this using the C8 form). After the first paragraph you need to number all the paragraphs. Explain where you both live. If your address is confidential you can just give some details such as I live in a two bedroom flat, the address of which is confidential, that is rented in my sole name. Give brief details of any children - full names, dates of birth, who their parents are and where they live / who they live with. | I, Sarah- Jane Coombs, of 2 Regent Road, London, make this statement in support of my application for a non-molestation order against my ex-partner, the respondent, Michael James Thompson.
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History of your relationship Explain how you met and how long you have been a couple. Give dates here if you possibly can. Even rough dates help to paint a picture for the court. Explain when you first noticed his/her behaviour change and become more controlling or explain how it was controlling from the start. Give plenty of examples. This might feel really embarrassing but the more details you give on paper the clearer the situation will be for the Judge which will help him or her to make a decision more easily. |
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Incidents of abuse / violence / serious threats of violence Give details of first or early occasions when you remember he/she was actually violent or threatened violence towards you. Again, the more details you can give the better as it will help the court understand what has been happening. You are highly unlikely to be able to remember each and every incident of controlling, abusive or violent behaviour. It is fine to say this. If you can remember any dates or even just the month or year that will help the court a lot. Do try and include the early ones to explain how things developed. Then include the worst incidents and then at the end add in the most recent to bring it right up to date for the court. You can put in headings to show the different incidents to help the judge. |
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Incidents of abuse / violence / serious threats of violence - most serious incident It might be that for you there have been lots of similar very serious incidents. It is best to make sure you give lots of details on what you remember as the most or some of the most serious incidents. This will make it clear to the court how dangerous the other person is and what he or she has the potential to do when made angry for example, by you applying to the court for protection.
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Most recent incident/s of abuse / actual violence or serious threats of violence. The most recent incident or few most recent incidents are the usually the most important as it is these which the court will rely on for making an order to protect you. Include as much detail as you can, such as:
It is good to include any incidents where other people saw or heard how the other person was behaving towards you, even if what they saw wasn’t as serious as things that have happened between you behind closed doors. This is because they can support what you are saying. Other people are independent (outside the relationship) and could act as witnesses for you. If there are any witnesses ask if they will help you by doing a witness statement and by coming to court if the judge asks them to answer questions about what they saw or heard. |
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What prompted you to apply to the court It is important that you tell the court what action you have taken since the most recent incident. This explains what / who has encouraged you to apply. If you have reported the matter to the police make sure you say this in your statement. Add in crime reference numbers or log numbers if you have them. Tell the court about anyone who has encouraged you to apply. Examples include:
If the other person is harassing you by phone or text the court will probably ask you what you have done to change your number. If the other person is harassing you online the court will ask if you have blocked him or her or even closed that account. |
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Details of the order you are asking the court to make. If you think it would help you can print off a map of any locations you want the court to stop the other person from going to. You can find the address on google maps and then print it off and mark your exact address on the map and attach it to your statement. You can also give the court other evidence if you have it such as photos of injuries, medical records or print outs of abusive or threatening messages or emails - for example text messages or WhatsApp messages. These can be very helpful as they are easy to get hold of and really show the court what the other person is like. Don’t worry if you don’t have any other evidence though - often there is no evidence other than what you and the other person says about what happened.
If you are asking for a without notice order say this here and give the reason or reasons why. A reminder of the reasons is here: The court can hear your application and make an order without the other person knowing, if it thinks you will be at risk of significant harm if the order is not made straight away. (Be aware that your application and statement still get seen by the other person when they get given the court order). If you would be put off from applying for an order if it is not made straight away, then you can give this as a reason. You might well be put off from applying if the other person is told about the hearing before because you won’t be protected until the order is made and given to the other person. Another reason you can give is that you think the other person knows you are planning to apply for an order and will try to make sure they are not given the court paperwork. This is called 'evading service' and this would cause delay in you getting the protection you need. Be aware that you are only protected by the order once it has been given to the other person. The court decides whether or not the order should be made without the other person being told about it first. This means that if the court decides the other person should be told in advance you will both need to go to the hearing where the court will then decide what order to make. |
I confirm that the respondent has no reason to go to either of these addresses or to any address within 50 metres of them. They are both quiet roads and he does not need to access them to go elsewhere. Dalby Lane is a no through road. I attach at Exhibit ‘SJC 1’ two maps showing the locations of the two above addresses. I respectfully request that the court grant me the above order without notice being first given to the respondent. I am terrified of what the respondent may do next. If he found out I had applied to court for an order against him and we both had to wait for a hearing date, I am certain he would be violent to me again given his recent violent behaviour. I would be too afraid of him to apply on notice. |
You must include this - without it the court can decide not to allow the statement to be used as evidence which means it can be ignored.
| I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. I believe that the facts stated in this form and any continuation sheets are true. |
| You must sign and date your statement | Signed………………………. Dated……………………….. |
Exhibit front sheet If you want to give the court any extra documents to support your statement, you will need a ‘front sheet’ set out like this example. Print this and then put whatever document (or documents) you want behind it and put it at the end of your statement. Make sure you number all the pages of your statement when you finish. Just a few examples of extra documents you may want to give to the court are medical records, photos of injuries, or letters in support from a social worker. If you have abusive emails, texts or messages via social media apps it is a good idea to print these off and attach them as exhibits. | Statement of the Applicant: S-J Coombs Statement no: 1 Exhibits: 1 Dated: 28/2/24 Case number:
IN THE FAMILY COURT SITTING AT ................... IN THE MATTER OF THE FAMILY LAW ACT 1996 BETWEEN:
Sarah-Jane Coombs Applicant and
Michael James Thompson Respondent
EXHIBIT ‘SJC1’
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This section is for you if you are doing the FL401 form to apply to the family court for a non-molestation order and an occupation order.
On the left, is information to help you write your statement for the family court. It tells you all the things you should try to put in your statement and how to begin.
On the right is Sarah-Jane’s statement that she has written to support her FL401 form to apply for a non-molestation order and an occupation order. We have included it to show you what sort of details about your situation you should include in your statement.
Only use this as a guide. Make sure you make your statement personal to you.
Front page of your statement Statements for the court need to be set out in a particular way with information in the top right hand corner and then the details of the case set out like we have done here. The case number is the unique number given to your case when you take your application to the court. They will add it and then it will be on all future court documents. The words in your statement need to be double spaced (for less confident computer users, you do this on MS Word by selecting the Home tab and selecting the line spacing option 2.0) and must only be printed on one side of the paper. Where it says ‘Sitting at’ you need to add the name of your local court | Statement of the Applicant: S-J Coombs Statement no: 1 Exhibits: 1 Dated: 28/2/24 Case number:
IN THE FAMILY COURT SITTING AT................................. IN THE MATTER OF THE FAMILY LAW ACT 1996 BETWEEN:
Sarah-Jane Coombs Applicant and
Michael James Thompson Respondent
FIRST STATEMENT OF THE APPLICANT
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Introduction Explain who you are and who the person you want the order against, is. Say how you are related, for example by saying you are applying for an order against your husband or ex-partner. After the first paragraph you need to number all the paragraphs. Give brief details of any children - full names, dates of birth, who their parents are and where they live / who they live with. You cannot keep an address confidential if you are applying for an occupation order. This is because an order cannot be made to prevent someone from being somewhere or going somewhere if they don’t know where it is. | I, Sarah- Jane Coombs, of 2 Regent Road, London, make this statement in support of my application for a non-molestation order and an occupation order against my ex-partner, the respondent, Michael James Thompson.
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History of your relationship Explain how you met and how long you have been a couple. Give dates here if you possibly can. Even rough dates help to paint a picture for the court. Explain when you first noticed his/her behaviour change and become more controlling or explain how it was controlling from the start. Give plenty of examples. This might feel really embarrassing but the more details you give on paper the clearer the situation will be for the Judge which will help him or her to make a decision more easily. |
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Incidents of abuse / violence / serious threats of violence Give details of first or early occasions when you remember he/she was actually violent or threatened violence towards you. Again, the more details you can give the better as it will help the court understand what has been happening. You are highly unlikely to be able to remember each and every incident of controlling, abusive or violent behaviour. It is fine to say this. If you can remember any dates or even just the month or year that will help the court a lot. Do try and include the early ones to explain how things developed. Then include the worst incidents and then at the end add in the most recent to bring it right up to date for the court. You can put in headings to show the different incidents to help the judge. |
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Incidents of abuse / violence / serious threats of violence - most serious incident It might be that there have been lots of similar, very serious, incidents. It is best to give lots of details on what you remember as the most, or some of the most, serious incidents. This will make it clear to the court how dangerous the other person is and what he or she has the potential to do when made angry. This shows why you are applying to the court for protection. |
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Most recent incident/s of abuse / violence or serious threats of violence. The most recent incident or a few of the most recent incidents are the usually the most important as it is these which the court will rely on for making an order to protect you. Include as much detail as you can, such as:
It is good to include any incidents where other people saw or heard how the other person was behaving towards you, even if what they saw wasn’t as serious as things that have happened between you behind closed doors. This is because other people are independent (outside the relationship) and can support what you are saying. They may also be called as witnesses. If there are any witnesses ask if they will help you by doing a witness statement and by coming to court if the judge asks them to answer questions about what they saw or heard. |
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What prompted you to apply to the court It is important that you tell the court what action you have taken since the most recent incident. This explains what / who has encouraged you to apply. If you have reported the matter to the police make sure you say this in your statement. Add in crime reference numbers or log numbers if you have them. If other people have helped you, include information about that. For example:
It could be that you have had advice from a family law solicitor, but are now doing this without her or his help. |
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Details of the order you are asking the court to make - non-molestation order. If you think it would help, you can print off a map of any locations you want the court to stop the other person from going to. You can find the address on google maps and then print it off and mark your exact address on the map and attach it to your statement. You can also give the court other evidence if you have it such as photos of injuries, medical records or print outs of abusive or threatening messages or emails -for example text messages or WhatsApp messages. These can be very helpful as they are easy to get hold of and really show the court what the other person is like. Don’t worry if you don’t have any other evidence though - often there is no evidence other than what you and the other person says about what happened. If you are asking for a without notice order say this here and give the reason or reasons why. The different reasons are listed here: The court can hear your application and make an order without the other person knowing, if it thinks you will be at risk of significant harm if the order is not made straight away. (Be aware that your application and statement still get seen by the other person when they get given the court order). If you would be put off from applying for an order if it is not made straight away, then you can give this as a reason. You might well be put off from applying if the other person is told about the hearing before because you won’t be protected until the order is made and given to the other person. Another reason you can give is that you think the other person knows you are planning to apply for an order and will try to make sure they are not given the court paperwork. This is called evading service and this would cause delay in you getting the protection you need. Be aware that you are only protected by the order once it has been given to the other person. The court decides whether or not the order should be made without the other person being told about it first. This means that if the court decides the other person should be told in advance you will both need to go to the hearing where the court will then decide what order to make. |
The respondent is forbidden to
I confirm that the respondent has no reason to go to Dalby Lane, which is a no through road. I respectfully request that the court grant me the above order without notice being first given to the respondent. I am terrified of what the respondent may do next. If he found out I had applied to court for an order against him and we both had to wait for a hearing date, I am certain he would be violent to me again given his recent violent behaviour. I would be too afraid of him to apply on notice. |
Details of the order you are asking the court to make - occupation order. Here you need to give details to the court about:
You will have already given details about the other person’s behaviour so you just need to focus on the other points in the list. If you have a copy of the tenancy agreement or evidence about how you own the home (such as a copy of the land registry record for the home or a mortgage statement addressed to you both) it is useful to attach this to your statement for the judge to see. That way the judge will be clear about who has what legal rights in relation to the home. Here (at paragraph 26) is the standard wording for the occupation order, for you to adapt. Don’t forget to include the final sentence if you want the other person to be arrested by the police if he or she does not follow the order. Without this the police cannot arrest the other person and you would have to go back to the family court to enforce the order. This wording is standard wording used to tell the court about any extra documents you want to show it to back up your case. It can be helpful to include this last paragraph to tell the court that if the other person fights the making of the orders you are asking for you will ask for permission to give the court more information about the other person’s behaviour. This could include for example a witness doing a statement. |
I attach at exhibit ‘SJC2’ a map of the above location and a map of the location of my work to assist the court in making its decision. Due to the urgent nature of this application if the respondent opposes the application I will request permission to file further evidence in relation to the respondent’s abusive behaviour. |
| You must include this wording - without it, the court can decide not to allow the statement to be used as evidence which means it can be ignored by the court when it makes its decision. | I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. I believe that the facts stated in this form and any continuation sheets are true. |
| You must sign and date your statement. | Signed………………………. Dated……………………….. |
Exhibit front sheet If you want to give the court any extra documents to support your statement, you will need a ‘front sheet’ set out like this example. Print this and then put whatever document you want behind it and put it at the end of your statement. If you have several documents it is helpful to do several front sheets. So, for example, you could do a front sheet for any maps and then another one for a different type of document such as any photos of injuries. Just a few examples of extra documents you may want to give to the court are medical records, copies of abusive texts, WhatsApp messages or emails from the other person or letters in support from a social worker. Make sure you number all the pages of your statement and any exhibits when you finish. | Statement of the Applicant: S-J Coombs Statement no: 1 Exhibits: 1 Dated: 28/2/24 Case number:
IN THE FAMILY COURT SITTING AT................. IN THE MATTER OF THE FAMILY LAW ACT 1996 BETWEEN:
Sarah-Jane Coombs Applicant and
Michael James Thompson Respondent
EXHIBIT ‘SJC1’
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When you have finished your FL401 form and your statement you need to:
The information in this guide applies to England and Wales and is for general purposes only. The law is different in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
The law is complicated. We have simplified things in the guide. Please don't rely on this guide as a complete statement of the law or as a substitute for getting legal advice about what to do in the specific circumstances of your case.
November 2024
This guide was updated thanks to funding from the Ministry of Justice via the Online Support and Advice grant. Advicenow would like to thank all those who gave their time and expertise to this update, particularly Sophie Perry of THP solicitors.
January 2023
This guide was updated thanks to funding from the Help Accessing Legal Support grant (HALS)
November 2021
This guide was written, produced and updated by Advicenow, supported by the Ministry of Justice and The Access to Justice Foundation through the Legal Support for Litigants in Person grant.
We would like to thank all those who provided feedback on this guide.
© Advicenow 2024
