Finding the best legal option for someone experiencing domestic abuse is critical. When a survivor of domestic abuse makes a decision to act on what may have been years of violence or controlling behaviour, the system needs to work to allow that person to get the emergency help they need.
Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors (FLOWS) is a service run by RCJ Advice, a Citizens Advice & Law Centre, in partnership with Rights of Women, and helps people access this emergency legal advice through the courts. Set up to help women, who significantly and disproportionately make up the number domestic abuse cases, legal advice is available for any person of any gender experiencing domestic abuse from this organisation or its network of law firms up and down the country.
The government has launched the pilot of a new legal remedy available through the courts called Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, or DAPOs, and Domestic Abuse Protection Notices, or DAPNs. This is intended to give immediate protection following a recent incident of domestic abuse. If it works, these will create extra choices for survivors of domestic abuse seeking injunctions. It aims to ensure the perpetrator stays away from the victim on a long-term basis, it could require the perpetrator to attend behavioral change programmes, and it could include electronic ‘tagging’ to ensure compliance with the order.
FLOWS will support the trial and will ensure people contacting them from the pilot areas, and professionals who support those people from across England and Wales know about the new orders, help people work out if it’s the best option, and help people complete the court application process.
Alex Lowry, Head of FLOWS at RCJ Advice says “We have been running this service in England and Wales for many years, and sadly get over 24,000 contacts every year from people, mainly women, experiencing abuse. We help people understand what abuse is, it’s not only physical violence, but includes controlling and coercive behaviour. We make sure people get the urgent legal advice they need including supporting them with applying for the existing emergency protective orders. We are pleased to be able to expand our service to support individuals who decide to engage with the DAPO/DAPN pilot. Throughout this pilot, we will provide independent legal advice to survivors to ensure that they can make an informed decision about what form of protection they wish to apply for and help them do just that”
A partner organisation working with FLOWS, is Rights of Women, and their Director, Estelle du Boulay says “We are pleased the new Government has committed to halving violence against women and girls in a decade. We look forward to the evaluation of the new pilots to learn whether DAPOs/DAPNs provide increased safety options and access to justice for all survivors of domestic abuse. We hope that the piloting of these orders will address some of the problems with the current protective orders and we will be carefully monitoring the response to them by listening to women survivors. We know providing women survivors with legal advice and representation to apply for protective orders is critical to their ability to secure the protection they need alongside robust enforcement. We will be providing independent legal support to women survivors and guidance to domestic abuse organisations to understand the new changes.”
Minister for Victims and Violence Against Women and Girls, Alex Davies-Jones, said: “It takes tremendous courage for victims of domestic abuse to seek help. Our role in Government is to make this as straightforward as possible. These new orders reduce the pressure on victims by allowing third parties to make an application on their behalf, while ensuring the powers available to the courts are more stringent than ever before. This Government will continue to do all it can to end violence against women and girls.”
Further information on the DAPO/DAPN pilot can be found at Domestic Abuse Protection Notices / Orders factsheet – GOV.UK
