Two British police forces have received complaints for allegedly giving out business cards on behalf of a for-profit company that offers legal services to victims of domestic violence, BuzzFeed News has learned.
The National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) is a business that says it provides “a free, fast emergency injunction service to survivors of domestic violence regardless of their financial circumstances, race, gender, or sexual orientation”. It offers victims help in obtaining a legal aid lawyer or a caseworker, so that they can go to court and obtain a non-molestation order that will stop abusers from contacting their victims.
However, the letters of complaint sent to the chief constables of Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire police allege: “The police are breaching the police code of ethics and the standards of professional behaviour for police officers” by handing out its business cards.
Among other claims, they also allege the NCDV has an impersonal approach to victims that is inappropriate, that it is freezing out local solicitors who could offer a better service, and that it is connected to a second company that profits by charging to serve the papers.
The NCDV contacts victims of domestic violence who have been referred to it by the police or other bodies and assesses their eligibility for legal aid. Those eligible will have a statement prepared for them over the phone. It then sells these statements to solicitors who sit on its panel.
The solicitor and the client will subsequently meet at court, and the solicitor will make an application for a non-molestation order to keep the client's abusive partner away based on the NCDV-prepared statement.
If the solicitor’s application is successful the court order will be sent back to a company called I-docServe to serve an injunction on the abuser.
A spokesman for the NCDV said that I-docServe is “an independent process service company”. However, two of the company’s directors have served with the NCDV’s director of operations on the board of a company called ReleaseMyLease Ltd.
Eve Thomas, the head of #Safe, an organisation which provides services for victims of domestic violence, told BuzzFeed News: “The anti-molestation process is distressing and traumatic. When a domestic violence victim leaves a relationship there’s increased fear and risk – we should be doing everything to make sure the system is robust and safe. It shouldn’t be about money. If the police are handing out [NCDV cards] they need to make sure they’re doing their jobs properly."
A spokesperson for Northamptonshire police said: “We can confirm that a letter of complaint was received and we are looking into the matter. Northamptonshire police do not endorse one particular organisation and will provide victims with a number of available resources to them.
“As far as we are aware we have not received any specific complaints from victims who have used the services of this company.”
A Cambridgeshire police spokesperson said: "The force is focused on supporting victims of domestic abuse and in order to achieve this we identify outside support agencies for victims to consider approaching, of which [the NCDV] is one.
"This is a nationally informed group that is one of a number identified as providing support to victims. Although staff may pass on their details they take no other active role in working with NCDV.
"We have had inputs from them to detail the services that they offer for victims of domestic abuse, but they are by no means an exclusive company promoted by Cambridgeshire Constabulary."
A spokesman for the NCDV told BuzzFeed News that the complaints were “unfounded and malicious”, and originated “neither from an established domestic violence organisation nor any authority that is recognised by any police force or government body”. He said the company made profits and “wasn’t ashamed” of this, “because we use these profits to invest in technical solutions and fund legal services to those victims that cannot obtain legal aid because of the considerable cuts in legal aid and can’t afford a solicitor.”
He went on to tell us the company had “provided protection to over 40,000 victims of domestic violence, has won a number of awards, have partnered with thousands of support agencies across the UK, is supported by prominent public figures…we innovate and we protect and we do all this without any funding from the government, without any donations and we never have and we never will charge a victim of domestic violence.”
It’s not clear how many police forces have been promoting the NCDV – nor to what extent. However, BuzzFeed News understands that a complaint has been made to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) about the force’s relationship with the company – by a different individual to the complainant to Northants and Cambridgeshire.
The force would not confirm or deny the allegation, but Detective Chief Superintendent Vanessa Jardine, head of GMP’s public protection division, said: “We are aware of the National Centre for Domestic Violence and I know that there have been occasions when our officers have directed victims to this service.
“However as an organisation we do not endorse the use of one service over another and in fact our officers are trained to refer people to a wide range of service providers including End the Fear and Victim Support that provide information, advice, and useful contact numbers that they are able to use during a crisis.
“Over the last 18 months GMP have invested in training all our frontline staff to understand their individual roles and how they can best support victims of domestic abuse.
“To assist officers they have been issued with information cards for victims which feature the details of national and local support agencies that can offer practical advice and support.”
NCDV’s June newsletter featured a glowing reference from Avon and Somerset Assistant Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe, the national policing lead on domestic abuse. She is quoted as saying: “With funding cuts as they are I would encourage any officers and Police Crime Commissioners to take advantage of NCDV’s free training which is an invaluable resource.”
This is not the first time concerns have been raised about NCDV. In 2011 Cris McCurley, a local solicitor, gave evidence about the company to the Commons home affairs select committee. She said at the time: “They will only place solicitors on their referral list if that solicitor will agree to pay them a fee for preparation of court documents. Not only does this amount to an under-the-table referral fee but it leads to the provision of unsatisfactory case papers on the part of the client.”
McCurley also added that there were problems in their process services: “Another difficulty with the NCDV, and the reason they stopped referring work to ourselves, was the fact that they were clearly generating income by making local arrangements with process services (£50.00 per service) and then charging three times this much as that in their bill which they encouraged us to claim as disbursements from the LSC. We pointed out that this was fraud and never heard from them again.”
The NCDV spokesman would not comment on these allegations, but said: “We have no comment on this, other than Ms McCurley has a direct conflict of interest with NCDV. She is a fee-charging solicitor who makes a charge to those victims who are not entitled to public funding.”