Injunctive Relief
What is an injunction?
Injunctive relief—or an injunction—is a court order that stops an organization or an individual from taking a specific action. An injunction can also stop someone from doing something specific.
The idea behind injunctive relief is to limit or prevent actions that could cause serious, lasting damage to another person or organization. It’s often used when just paying money to cover damages is not considered enough to fix the problem caused by the offending party.
As a business or HR team, you might come across injunctive relief if someone breaches a contract or NDA, steals intellectual property or similar situations.
What’s a preliminary injunction?
Think of a preliminary injunction as a temporary fix, filed early in a legal dispute before a trial takes place. The idea is to limit any serious or irreparable damage and keep things as they are until a final decision is made in court.
A preliminary injunction makes sure that everyone’s rights and interests are protected while the legal process plays out.
What are the types of injunctions?
Injunctions can be sorted by two different variables: what they do and how long they last.
What they do
- Mandatory Injunctions: This effect requires a party to take specific action to fix a problem.
- Prohibitory Injunctions: This type of injunction stops individuals or companies from doing something.
How long they last
- Permanent Injunctions: These are issued at the end of the trial and don’t have an expiration date.
- Preliminary/Temporary Injunctions: Preliminary injunctions are made at the beginning of a trial to stop the defending party from doing anything that could further harm the other party during the trial.
- Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs): TROs are injunctions that only last for a short amount of time. For example, a TRO may only last a maximum of two weeks (but a court can renew it if needed).
What is an example of injunctive relief?
There are many scenarios when injunction relief will most likely be used to settle a legal dispute. Here are some of the most common examples where a business might ask for an injunction:
- Stealing Clients: If a former employee or independent contractor tries to lure away a company’s clients, the business will want to stop them quickly. While the severity of this penalty depends on a few things, a TRO can make the ex-employee stop straight away. Then, the two parties can work out an agreement on how to address the issue.
- Breach of Contract: Injunctive relief is an effective way to stop someone from continuing to breach a contract. It can help get their actions back in line with the conditions of their employment.
- Bankruptcy: When a company or person declares bankruptcy, they give up their assets to help pay off their debts. During this time, a court might issue an injunction to stop creditors from collecting debts while the bankruptcy is being sorted.
- Intellectual Property Infringement: If someone's using your licensed intellectual property without permission, you can request an injunction to stop them from misusing it. Most often, this kind of injunction is permanent.
What forms of relief can injunctions offer?
Injunctions can offer relief where just paying money doesn’t cover the damage done or isn't appropriate. For example, in the case of bankruptcy, it makes more sense to tell debt collectors to stop trying to collect than to ask for a financial payout.
Injunctions are also great for preventing further damage. In the case of intellectual property infringement, allowing the offending party to continue can seriously harm the licensed property. Stopping them is the most fiscally responsible tactic.
What is the purpose of injunctive relief?
The main purpose of injunction relief is to stop future harm from occurring to a business’s reputation or finances. If the offending individual or business continues despite the injunction, they may be charged with jail time or receive further fees.