In an unusual move on Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada created a new legal basis for people to seek damages for alleged intimate partner violence in relationships marred by coercive control.

The majority decision could make it easier for people who suffer wide-ranging abuse in an intimate partner relationship to win cash compensation in the civil courts. But in a sharp dissent, a minority of the top court judges warned the ruling upends the established legal landscape and will stoke confusion in the lower courts.

“Intimate partner violence is a pernicious social ill deserving of the full attention of the law,” wrote Justice Nicholas Kasirer on behalf of the 6-3 majority, including Chief Justice Richard Wagner, in favour of forging new legal territory.

Justice Kasirer said such violence isn’t confined to physical or psychological injury but includes a range of tactics that encompass the concept of coercive control. This includes “isolation, manipulation, humiliation, surveillance, economic abuse, sexual coercion, and intimidation.”