Advice from GBCLegal Team relating to possestion orders and injuntions for univeristy occupations.

Please fwd

To all the university occupations

Some basic advice on Injunctions and Possession orders.

Possession Orders

are served by the court and applied for by the owners of the property. They give the police and high court bailiffs power to evict you using reasonable force, this extends to the use of force in order to gain entry to the space you are in.

The method in which the Order is served will be that it is pasted up onto the property. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE READ THE ORDER FOR IT TO TAKE EFFECT.

Yesterday the Oxford occupation was evicted by a Possession Order. They refused to leave one by one and were taken out physically on mass by police. However no arrests were made.

Injunctions

are orders not to do something made by the court and applied for by your uni. If you do the said thing then your in contempt of court and can be arrested or/and removed. In some rare circumstances this can give rise to criminal or civil action after the occupation has been evicted. THE MAIN DEFENSE AGAINST AN INJUNCTION IS THAT YOU WEREN'T AWARE OF IT.

At Oxford solicitors were serving the IPO but the people in occupation chose to ignore it, thinking it might be an Injunction. They sang well it was being read, closed the curtains when it was put at the window and pushed it back when it came under the door. It turned out to be a
Possession Order but if it was an Injunction then their defense, during or later in court, would have been that they were not aware of its terms.

For other legal info see our bust card available here:
london.indymedia.org/articles/6069

Green and Black Cross legal team is a support group set up using the infrastructure, skills and experience in the climate movement. We are based in London at the moment but are happy to support people across the UK when possible.

Solidarity with the occupations, solidarity with the arrested!

GBCLegal@riseup.net