Temporary Injunction (Explained: All You Need To Know)

What is a Temporary Injunction?

How does it work?

What are the essential elements you should know!

Keep reading as I have gathered exactly the information that you need!

Let’s define temporary injunctions and see why they are so important!

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Let’s get started!

What Is A Temporary Injunction

A temporary injunction is a type of court order that is valid for the duration of the legal proceedings where the court orders someone to do or not to do something until the parties are heard in a trial.

Depending on your jurisdiction and the applicable court rules, it’s possible that a party obtain a temporary injunction by presenting the request to the court without the presence of the other party when there’s an emergency of some kind.

For the court to issue a temporary injunction, the moving party must show that without the injunction irreparable harm will be caused and there are no other proper legal remedies available to deal with the issue.

For example, a party may file for a temporary injunctive to prevent another party from selling an asset to a third party, or performing a financial transaction, or disposing of a property in some way.

If it can be demonstrated that by disposing of the asset, irreparable harm can be caused, or the asset can no longer be recovered, and there are no other remedies available in law, then the court may prohibit the other person from disposing of the asset until a hearing takes place on the issue.

In general, a person who fails to respect the terms of the temporary order can be found to be in contempt of court and face severe penalties in law. 

If you have received a court order and looking to understand your rights and obligations, you should call a qualified attorney for advice or representation as you may face severe consequences.

Now, to better understand the meaning of temporary injunctions, let’s first define the meaning of an injunction.

What Is An Injunction

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an injunction is defined as:

In essence, an injunction is an “order” of the court either compelling or prohibiting a person to do something.

Temporary Injunction Definition

According to Law.com, a temporary injunction is defined as:

As you can see from this definition, a temporary injunction is a type of injunction that remains in effect until the parties are heard in a trial at the end of the proceedings.

Types of Injunctions

Although there are many types of injunctions possible depending on the applicable laws, we can classify different injunctions into five categories:

• Temporary injunctions
• Temporary restraining orders
• Permanent injunctions
• Mandatory injunctions
• Prohibitory injunctions

A temporary injunction is a type of court order that is typically issued early on after the filing of a civil lawsuit to ensure that the defendant does or does not do something that could cause further injuries to the plaintiff during the proceedings.

A temporary restraining order (or TRO) is a court order that has a very short lifespan (10 days at most in many jurisdictions) and is issued when there’s an emergency that the plaintiff may suffer harm.

A permanent injunction is an order from the court where the defendant is definitively ordered to do or not to do something and where the court order will remain enforceable at all times.

A mandatory injunction is when the court requires that the defendant perform an action or take an affirmative action of some kind until there is a final hearing.

Finally, a prohibitory injunction is when the defendant is prohibited from doing something or restricted from certain conduct until there is a final hearing.

Temporary Injunction Requirements

The courts in every jurisdiction will have varying rules applicable to temporary injunctions.

If you are looking to find the rules applicable specifically in your area to file a temporary injunction, you should speak to a trial attorney or litigation lawyer to get specific advice on your case.

Generally speaking, there are two main elements to demonstrate to get a temporary injunction issued by the court:

• The applicant does not have any other adequate remedy in law to resolve the issue
• Without the temporary injunction, the applicant will suffer irreparable harm that the hearing on the merits of the case will not be able to resolve 

In addition to these two requirements, in other jurisdictions, the courts may also consider other requirements such as:

• The plaintiff’s likelihood of success in the case
• The balance of harm caused to the applicant if the injunction is not granted versus the harm caused to the defendant if the injunction is granted 

How To File A Temporary Injunction

The filing of a temporary injunction must be done in compliance with the applicable rules of civil procedure.

The first step is to determine if the plaintiff or applicant can establish the main elements required for a temporary injunction to be issued:

• Can you demonstrate that the defendant may do or not do something that can cause you irreparable harm that could no longer get fixed by the court
• Instead of taking the injunction route, are there other types of legal recourses available in law that could provide you with the relief that you need

If you or your attorney are able to answer these two questions and can prove them, the next step is to draft the actual temporary injunction application.

The application must provide:

• A proper description of the issue
• On what basis the plaintiff believes that he or she will be exposed to irreparable harm
• A clear and proper description of the act or acts the plaintiff intends to prevent
• A clear statement about other possible recourses or non-existence of other recourses in law

The objective is to prove that the defendant has harmed or may harm the elements at the core of the litigation involving the parties.

Once the application is drafted, it must then be served to the other party and filed at court or if the application is to be presented on an ex parte basis, it will only be filed in the record of the court.

Temporary Injunction Hearing

For the court to issue a “temporary injunction”, the parties must be given a chance to be heard.

In the first scenario, one of the parties to the lawsuit files a motion for a temporary injunction against the other, both parties are heard, and the judge decides to render a temporary injunction order or not.

In this case, all parties were present at the hearing and had the chance to present their arguments to the court before an order was issued.

In the second scenario, the court may issue an emergency temporary injunction upon the application of one party who presents the case to the court in the absence of the other party (ex parte hearing).

If the court decides to grant the temporary injunction relief order, the other party will have the right to be given notice of the temporary order and will be given the chance to appear before the court and show cause as to why the injunction should not be granted.

According to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 65, the federal court is required to give notice to the person against whom an injunction is issued with the exception where a temporary restraining order is necessary.

Temporary Injunction Meaning Takeaways 

So there you have it folks!

What does a temporary injunction mean?

A temporary injunction is a type of court order that is valid for the duration of the legal proceedings and where a party requests that the other party be ordered to do something or refrain from doing something that may result in injuries.

A temporary order can be with notice where the defendant receives notice of the plaintiff’s application and who can contest it or it can be without a notice (ex parte) where the applicant requests the order in the absence of the other party.

The temporary injunction order will remain in effect until the civil lawsuit is fully disposed of by the court by issuing a final judgment.

To succeed in getting a temporary injunction relief, the applicant must prove that the defendant may do or not do something that can cause the plaintiff irreparable harm and that there are no other proper legal remedies available in law.

I hope I have been able to explain to you what a temporary injunction means, how it is granted, and how it works.

Good luck!

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Now, let’s look at a summary of our findings.

Temporary Injunction Overview

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