Also known as: self help · selfhelp · self-help remedy · self-help doctrine
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A method by which a party enforces its legal rights or remedies without resort to judicial process. The method is permitted only when accomplished without breach of the peace, physical harm, or damage to property and only when the controlling law preserves the right.
Sofia Stern's lease expired and she remained in the apartment after the term ended. The landlord changed the locks while Sofia was at work and removed her belongings to the curb. Because the jurisdiction provides a speedy judicial remedy for recovery of possession, the landlord's self-help action violated the rule and exposed the landlord to damages.
Sarah Sullivan discovered that a neighbor's construction repeatedly flooded her yard. She considered cutting a drainage ditch herself but instead sought an injunction. The court weighed the adequacy of damages against the effects of self-help measures and granted the injunction because self-help would have risked further harm and litigation.
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Steven Silva's commercial lease contained a clause allowing the landlord to change locks upon any default. State law did not preserve self-help. When the landlord invoked the clause after a late rent payment, the court held the clause void as against public policy.
Sabrina Shah vacated her apartment two days after the lease ended. The landlord waited three weeks, then changed the locks at night without entering while anyone was present and stored her remaining items carefully. Because the actions occurred within a reasonable time, caused no harm, and used reasonable care, the self-help complied with the governing standards.
Stella Shapiro read a false newspaper article accusing her of professional misconduct. Rather than sue immediately, she issued a detailed public statement correcting the record. The availability of this self-help avenue influenced the court's later analysis of whether additional remedies were necessary.
Stephen Shaw remained in his apartment after the lease terminated. The landlord attempted to remove him by force without a court order. The court ruled that the state's provision of a judicial remedy barred the landlord's self-help attempt and required use of the statutory eviction process instead.
The controlling law supplies a speedy judicial remedy for recovery of possession from a tenant improperly holding over. In that circumstance neither the landlord nor an incoming tenant may resort to self-help unless the controlling law expressly preserves the right.
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If the controlling law does not preserve the right of self-help, any agreement permitting the landlord to resort to self-help is against public policy and void.
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Recovery must occur within a reasonable time after termination, without causing physical harm or the reasonable expectation of harm to the tenant or permitted occupants, and with reasonable care to avoid damage to the tenant's property.
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The relative adequacy of damages versus an injunction takes into account the effects of resort to measures of self-help among other factors that bear on compensation.
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…but the impact on those who rely on the public authority for protection and who without it can only engage in violent self-help with guns, knives and the help of their neighbors similarly inclined. There is, of course, a saving factor: the next victims are uncertain, unnamed and unrepresented in this case. Nor can…