Katie’s Campaign
Katie’s Law
A campaign for reform so civil court proceedings cannot be misused as part of a wider pattern of coercive control, economic abuse and stalking.
What Katie’s Law Is Asking For
Preventing legal processes from becoming another route for abuse.
Following Katie’s tragic murder in 2022, her family came to understand the full extent of the coercive control, economic abuse and stalking she had endured.
In the period leading up to her death, civil court proceedings became another source of pressure and distress for Katie. Her family believe those proceedings were used as a means of continuing the pattern of control and abuse she had experienced.
Through Katie’s Campaign, the family are calling for reform to ensure that the courts are better equipped to identify and respond to coercive and controlling behaviour, prevent the misuse of legal processes, and provide greater protection for victims and their families.
Identify
Ensuring civil courts are better equipped to recognise coercive and controlling behaviour.
Prevent
Preventing the misuse of legal processes as part of a wider pattern of abuse.
Protect
Providing greater protection for victims and their families when legal processes are involved.
Why Civil Court Proceedings Matter
A system designed to provide justice must not become a further source of harm.
Civil court proceedings are intended to resolve disputes fairly and provide access to justice. Katie’s family believe that, in her case, those proceedings became a further avenue through which she was subjected to emotional, financial and psychological harm.
Katie’s Law is about ensuring that the justice system is alert to patterns of domestic abuse, coercive control and stalking, particularly where legal processes may be used to continue pressure, distress or control.
Abuse can continue after separation.
Domestic abuse is not limited to physical violence. It can include coercive and controlling behaviour, economic abuse, stalking, threats, intimidation and other forms of harm.
Coercive control
A pattern of behaviour that can isolate, frighten, pressure or control a victim over time.
Economic abuse
Abuse that can involve control, pressure or harm through money, property, debts or financial processes.
Stalking and harassment
Unwanted behaviour that can cause fear, alarm, distress or a continuing sense of being unsafe.
Why Stronger Safeguards Are Needed
Existing routes matter, but Katie’s Law focuses on a specific gap.
Clare’s Law, also known as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, allows the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim about a partner’s or ex-partner’s previous abusive or violent offending. It includes the “Right to Ask” and the “Right to Know”.
Katie’s Campaign supports awareness of existing protection routes while also highlighting a particular concern: what can happen when civil court proceedings themselves become part of the pressure, distress or control experienced by a victim.
Reform and Scrutiny
No victim should face the justice system being used against them.
The aim is not to restrict legitimate access to justice. It is to ensure that courts can recognise when legal processes may be linked to coercive and controlling behaviour, domestic abuse, economic abuse or stalking.
Katie’s Campaign is calling for reform that improves awareness, strengthens safeguards, prevents the misuse of legal processes, and provides greater protection for victims and their families.
Katie’s Law is about protection, accountability and prevention.
It is a call for civil courts to be better equipped to recognise abuse, prevent process misuse and protect those at risk of further harm.
Learn More and Support
Support the campaign and access trusted information.
You can support Katie’s Campaign by donating, sharing the campaign, following updates online, or reading more from trusted support and information services.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 999 and ask for the police.
Sources and further information
These links provide campaign information, official guidance and specialist support context.