Sienna Miller has won £53,000 damages from paparazzi photographers in a landmark action under antiharassment laws designed to tackle animal rights protesters.

The actress, 26, claimed that her life had been made “intolerable” by photographers intruding into her privacy and pursuing her across the world.

The star had sued the London-based Big Pictures photographic agency and its founder, Darryn Lyons. Her lawyer said yesterday that the agency and Mr Lyons would pay the actress damages, her legal costs and undertake not to photograph Miller at her home or pursue her for pictures. Mark Thomson, from Carter-Ruck, said the settlement and the undertakings may have important repercussions for other paparazzi and well-known figures.

The action appears to be the first time that a celebrity has successfully sued photographers using antiharassment legislation designed to curtail the actions of animal rights protesters and stalkers, he said.

“It’s not a binding court ruling but it may well encourage other celebrities and those followed in such a way to take action,” Mr Thomson said. “We hope that people will back off my client as a result of this.”

Mr Thompson said that Miller had been hounded by groups of up to 15 photographers with some mounting round-the-clock surveillance on her.

“Most of the 23 photographs of my client in this case show her in distress having been chased, harassed and shouted out,” he said.

Under the terms of the High Court order, Big Pictures pledged that its photographers would not pursue or follow Miller by car, motorcycle or moped, or “any means howsoever”, or place her under surveillance. The agreement included detailed undertakings not to wait on her doorstep in Maida Vale, West London, or at the home of her family.

It also covers taking pictures of her in office blocks or buildings not open to the public, or where she has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Miller agreed that she would not have any such reasonable expectation when she was entering or exiting a bar, restaurant or nightclub, was on a public footpath or highway – and not visibly upset or distressed – or attending a “red carpet” event.

Big Pictures also agreed not to republish “pursuit” photos, taken in London, Los Angeles, Ibiza and elsewhere between June and September.

Details of Miller’s private life and romantic liaisons have regularly featured in tabloid newspapers and celebrity magazines. Her counsel, David Sherborne, said it was hoped that other photographers would take note of the order. He said Miller was not objecting in principle to the taking of photographs but to the manner in which they were taken.

Last month he told the High Court that the “relentless pursuit” of her by photographers had reached such a level that “it represents a gross and intolerable violation of her rights”.

The actress complained about a number of incidents in Britain, including being confronted outside her house in June “and then chased by car in a dangerous manner to Heathrow”.

On her return from Italy the following month she was pursued and harassed in West London and, after returning from Ibiza in August, she was pursued as she attempted to walk her dogs in the park with her mother.

Neil Addison, a barrister and expert in harassment law, said he had predicted that the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 would eventually be used against the paparazzi.

The settlement comes just over a week after News Group Newspapers, which publishes theNews of the World and The Sun, paid Miller £35,000 in damages for printing pictures which breached her privacy. News Group Newspapers is owned by the same parent company as The Times.

The Miller case was overseen by Mr Justice Eady, who critics say has introduced a privacy law by the back door. He has presided over a series of newspaper cases, including the High Court action by Max Mosley, the president of the motor racing body, the FIA, against the News of the World.

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