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Domestic Abuse

It can be hard to put a name to what’s happening. People often spend a long time wondering whether it’s really that bad, whether they’re making too much of it, or whether anyone would take them seriously.

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Get in touch

How we can support you through Domestic Abuse.

Non-molestation orders

A court order stopping someone from using or threatening violence, harassing, pestering or intimidating you.

Occupation orders

An order regulating who can live in the family home, and who must stay away from it.

When an order is breached

Breaching a non-molestation order is a criminal offence. We can act straight away if it happens.

Children and safeguarding

Advice where children are at risk, and how to raise concerns properly with the court and with Cafcass.

Get in touch Family Law FAQs

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It takes more forms than people expect.

Abuse takes many forms, and is far more common than you might think. It can be physical or sexual, but it can equally be emotional, psychological or financial, and a great deal of it leaves no mark at all. It can be someone controlling the money, checking your phone (or other forms of ‘tech abuse’), deciding who you’re allowed to see, or making you doubt your own memory of things. Behaviour like that is recognised in law as coercive control, and it has been a criminal offence since 2015. What matters is the pattern, not any single incident.

You don’t need to have decided anything.

You do not need to have made any decisions before you speak to us. You do not need to be ready to leave, or to have decided whether you want to involve the police. A confidential conversation to understand what protection exists and what your options are is often the most useful first step, and it commits you to nothing. Where protection is needed urgently, we can act quickly. Our Family Law partner, Kate Jackson, holds Resolution’s Specialist Accreditation in domestic abuse, which is given only to solicitors with genuine expertise in this area.

Where we can help

Non-molestation orders

A court order stopping someone from using or threatening violence, harassing, pestering or intimidating you.

Occupation orders

An order regulating who can live in the family home, and who must stay away from it.

When an order is breached

Breaching a non-molestation order is a criminal offence. We can act straight away if it happens.

Children and safeguarding

Advice where children are at risk, and how to raise concerns properly with the court and with Cafcass.

You won’t have to repeat your story.

Alongside the legal side, we can point you towards the specialist organisations and support services that help with the parts we can’t, and we work with them regularly.

If your situation also involves separation, finances or arrangements for children, we can look after all of it, so you’re not repeating your story to different people.

Other places you can get help.

You don’t have to start with a solicitor. These organisations support people through domestic abuse every day, they are free, and what you tell them is confidential. We work alongside many of them.

In Norfolk

Local services, who can also arrange somewhere safe to stay.

NIDAS (Norfolk Integrated Domestic Abuse Service)
The main route into support across Norfolk, for anyone at risk and their children.
0300 561 0555
9am–6:30pm weekdays, 9am–3pm weekends. Out of hours, call 0808 2000 247.
Leeway
Adults, young people and children across Norfolk and Suffolk. Runs refuges in Norfolk.
0300 561 0077
Daisy Programme
Survivors of domestic and sexual abuse around Watton, Thetford, Dereham, Swaffham and Attleborough.
01953 880903
Norfolk Community Law Service
Free, independent legal advice, including for people affected by domestic abuse.
01603 496623

Helplines, day or night

Free and confidential. You do not have to give your name.

National Domestic Abuse Helpline
Run by Refuge. Open to anyone experiencing domestic abuse.
0808 2000 247
Open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Men’s Advice Line
For men experiencing domestic abuse. Run by Respect.
0808 801 0327
Monday to Friday, 10am–5pm.
Galop
For LGBT+ people experiencing abuse, and for anyone worried about them.
0800 999 5428
SignHealth
Domestic abuse support for deaf people, in BSL.
Text only: 07800 003421. Email: da@signhealth.org.uk

If you’re worried about your own behaviour

Asking for help to change is not an admission you can’t come back from.

Respect Phoneline
Confidential advice for anyone concerned about the way they are behaving towards a partner or family member.
0808 802 4040
Monday to Friday, 10am–5pm.

If you’ve been accused.

We also advise and represent people facing allegations of abuse. Being accused is serious, and the consequences reach into contact with your children and your daily life. Everyone is entitled to proper advice, and we give it plainly and without judgement.

We’ll get in touch the way you ask us to.

If any of this sounds like your situation, or you simply want to talk to someone in confidence, get in touch. We will respond in the way you ask us to, at the time that you suggest — we will never contact you in a way that you haven’t authorised.

We’ll listen first, we won’t push you into anything, and whatever you tell us stays between us.

If you or your children are in immediate danger, call 999.

If you can’t safely speak, call 999 from a mobile and press 55 when the automated message prompts you. That tells the operator you need the police but can’t talk. It only works from a mobile — from a landline, stay on the line and, if you can, tap the handset in response to the questions.