Protection from harassment

The law offers individuals protection from harassment. Harassment is defined as a person pursuing a course of conduct which amounts to harassment which the perpetrator knows or ought to have known amounts to harassment.

Recently the Court of Appeal has decided that the sending of three fairly strong letters to an individual is equal to a course of conduct which amounts to harassment.

The Court of Appeal said in this case that it did not have to be satisfied that each letter could be said to be an individual act of harassment, however it did have to decide whether, taken cumulatively, the letters amounted to a course of conduct which had that effect. They confirmed that a claim under the Protection from Harassment Act could be pursued against a partnership.

As this matter concerned a firm of solicitors, the Court of Appeal was aware of the potential that every complaint between lawyers about the conduct of litigation could result in an arguable harassment claim under the Act. It suggested that it would be rare that such a complaint would amount to harassment but in this particular case it did.