Am I A Victim of Harassment?

If someone is causing you issues, it can be difficult to know whether their behaviour would be classed as harassment under the law. 

Harassment can be dealt with in two ways:

1. the police and CPS can take action against your harasser; and
2. you can bring a claim against your harasser in the civil courts.

At Samuels, we will be able to help you with bringing a civil claim for damages, although we can also help you put evidence together to help the police with a criminal prosecution. 

 

What is the definition of harassment?

Harassment is a course of conduct which causes distress or alarm to another person. This means, the way in which the harassment has made you feel is very important in assessing whether or not you can bring a claim. 

If you want to bring a civil claim for harassment, you need to prove that there has been a "course of conduct" by your harasser. This means that they have behaved in a harassing way towards you on at least two occasions.

You need to demonstrate that there has been "a persistent and deliberate course of unacceptable and oppressive conduct, targeted at another person, which is calculated to and does cause that person alarm, fear or distress". 

The harassing conduct "must reach a level of seriousness passing beyond irritations, annoyances, even a measure of upset, that arise occasionally in everybody's day-to-day dealings with other people". This means that the harassment must be more than just a common irritation, or argument that might happen between people on a day to day basis.

 

How can a harasser be punished?

If the police and CPS decide that the harassment is serious enough, your harasser could be arrested and charged, and then prosecuted through the criminal courts. If they are found guilty, they could be made subject to non molestation orders, or they could be put in prison

In a civil claim for harassment, the harasser could be ordered to pay you a sum of money to compensate you for the harm they have caused. The court can also impose an injunction to prevent the defendant from continuing their conduct. If that injunction is breached and the harassing conduct continues, they can be put in prison. 

 

Are there defences to a harassment claim?

There are several defences to a claim for harassment. It is a defence to a claim for harassment for the defendant to show that the conduct in question was:

• pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime;
• was pursued under any enactment or rule of law; or
• was reasonable in the circumstances.

 

Can emails sent to someone else be harassment?

In a recent case, the defendant sent 14 emails to various recipients between July 2023 and January 2024 (nine of which were sent in January 2024), which contained allegations that the claimant had engaged in "fraud, theft, forgery, money laundering and abusing his position".

The emails were sent to various members of the claimant's professional circle and the claimant’s solicitors but were not sent to the claimant directly. The claimant claimed that these emails caused him significant distress and embarrassment. In this case, the judge said:

• Communications do not need to be directly sent to the claimant to qualify as harassment. The defendant's argument that only direct communications with the claimant could form the basis of a harassment claim was incorrect and was rejected;
• Truth is not a defence to a harassment claim. Therefore, it does not matter whether the defendant can prove that the allegations were true; and
• In applying an objective test, a reasonable person in the defendant's position would ‘clearly recognise’ that their conduct amounted to harassment.

The judge concluded in this case that the defendant's actions met the legal threshold for harassment. The judge ordered the defendant to pay damages as well as costs at a higher level, as their conduct throughout the case had been unreasonable.

 

I am being harassed - what can I do?

If you are being harassed, you don't need to put up with it. In the first instance, you should contact us for a no obligation discussion about how we can help. We will have a discussion with you about reporting the harassment to the police and we will give you information about how to sue someone for harassment.