CCChat-Magazine_Issue-27-Survivors-Speak

process and then the court will accept
that the order has been served
correctly.
M: I think that's a really good idea. I've
always thought that literally having to
touch someone made it very
complicated.
B: I have to take my hat off and say
that the family courts have been
incredibly sensible with the way
they've approached the increase in
reporting during the Covid pandemic,
and the fact that people haven’t been
able to go out of their homes, or they
don't want to because there's a fear
that they might contract the virus.
This can be particularly unpredictable
if I'm serving an emergency order as it
means I'm knocking on somebody's
door and they know nothing about
what is coming. People can get
emotional or angry, sometimes they
can get aggressive. If I am allowed to
serve the order remotely then it just
takes away that flashpoint and
certainly reduces it to a great degree.
M: So out of all the injunctions that
you are involved in, I'm assuming the
non molestation orders are the ones
you're involved in the most, but what
is the breakdown of which orders are
granted?
"i've worked for NCDV for just over four years and in that time,
I've served somewhere in the region of
200 non- molestation orders."
Most court hearings I've been involved
with have been done remotely, either
over the telephone, Zoom or on
Microsoft Teams, so the victim hasn't
had to leave their house but still been
able to access the services at the court
and try and get this order granted.
M: Is there any indication that it's
going to stay like that when the world
gets back to normal?
B: Yeah, that's a really good question.
I’m guessing but some of my
colleagues and I think that the courts
might end up doing a mixture of both,
because I think it's more efficient for
them. It's safer for victims and actually
safer for me as a process server - I'm
not going around to somebody's house,
unannounced, and getting in that
potentially conflict situation.
B: I've worked for NCDV for just over
four years and in that time, I've served
somewhere in the region of 200 nonmolestation
orders. In that time I’ve
done maybe 10 occupation orders and
probably about the same for
prohibitive steps orders. So the most,
by far, are the non-molestation orders.
M: How long does an order last before
it needs to be renewed?
B: The ones I’ve done generally last for
12 months and the longest one that I
personally served was for five years,
which was fantastic protection for the
applicant. As well as process serving I
also deliver a free lecture to police and
organisations that deal with domestic
abuse on NCDV’s services.
Making The Invisible Visible