Anti-social Behaviour Awareness Week: Addressing delays in the civil justice system

The week commencing 30 June 2025 marks the start of the UK’s national Anti-social Behaviour Awareness Week, which aims to raise awareness of what amounts to Anti-Social Behaviour (“ASB”), its impact on communities and ways in which it can be tackled. The theme for the week is #MakingCommunitiesSafer and at Bevan Brittan, we are always looking for new ways to support our housing clients to achieve this aim.

A source of frustration for practitioners attempting to manage ASB, particularly the most serious cases involving violence, risk of harm and criminality, is often delays in the court process which hinder the making of orders sought to offer protection to victims. Delays in the civil justice system have a profound and negative impact on victims of ASB. We address in this article some of the ways we, as lawyers representing social landlords, have tackled these delays, which we hope will serve as a helpful reminder of potential options in the most urgent of cases

Carefully choosing where to issue ex parte / without notice injunctions 

• We work nationally with social landlords and we are aware of delays, which are more profound at certain courts.
• The County Court is a “unified court” and as such it is possible to issue an application for an ex parte injunction in any Court, including a Court which is not near the perpetrator.
• Using the Single County Court in this way allows us to rely on those courts where turnaround is quick, and we are confident that the landlord and their witnesses will not be prejudiced by any delay
• The matter can be transferred to the perpetrators local court for the return hearing, so seeking the order away from the “home” court should not cause any disadvantage

Expediting possession claims

• First possession hearings can be expedited, and should be in the right circumstances
• The Court are likely to be more minded to do so in cases of serious ASB where:
  
  • the tenant has engaged in or threatened to engage in an assault on their landlord or another resident locally; 
  • the tenant has caused serious damage or threatened to cause serious damage to the property or to the home or property of another resident in the locality. 

Communicating with the Court 

• Get the basics right and ensure you are giving the Court all the information they need in a clear way to ensure they can deal with your application or claim;
• If there is a case or claim number, put this first on any email or letter;
• If a hearing is listed, again, put the date and time in the subject line;
• Send applications/ claims by special delivery so that you can see when they have been received.  

Complaints

• If your case has been unreasonably delayed, it can be wise to submit a complaint to the court where the application/claim has been issued.
• Address complaints to the Court Manager, or if you have the name of a complaints handler at the Court this is even better!
• The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman can review the administrative actions of a court
  
  • If a complaint is not responded to or not satisfactorily resolved, you may wish to refer the matter to them.
  • It is courteous to advise the Court dealing with your complaint if you intend to refer the matter to the Ombudsman. This in itself may ensure that a response is forthcoming without the need for further escalation.

If you or your organisation are struggling to advance a matter due to delays in your local County Court, we can help. Please get in contact with Senga Howells or Charlotte Rawson to discuss further.