In most legal cases in the civil system, the question is whether a party owes money to the other side, and if so, how much. But there are times when money is not sufficient, or it’s not all that it takes to prevent harm to a party. Sometimes, it takes a court to tell someone to stop doing something that they are doing. This is called an injunction.
Read on as our Chicago business lawyer at Ellis Legal explains injunctions further.
When Injunctions May Be Necessary
Although we think of injunctions as being used in domestic violence or other cases involving domestic disputes, injunctions also play a role in business law and commercial litigation.
An injunction is used when a party is being harmed and will keep being harmed every single day so long as the offending behavior continues. Imagine these situations:
A neighbor has an animal that is causing damage to your property, and the damage is occurring regularly.
Someone is using, disseminating, and profiting from your intellectual property, and this is going on daily.
Someone is saying defamatory statements about you, and the statements are being repeated and published in numerous outlets.
Someone has stolen your business’ trade secrets, and those trade secrets are being used by the other party on an ongoing basis.
In these cases, there is ongoing harm every day, which must be stopped.
Temporary and Permanent
You can get a temporary injunction, a permanent one, or both.
As the name suggests, a temporary injunction is issued at or near the beginning of the case. It is the court telling someone to stop what they are doing temporarily, pending the ultimate outcome of the case. This is often useful when the case looks like it will be longer, and thus, there is little hope of ever getting a permanent injunction in an expedited manner.
Parties can seek a temporary injunction if they can show that they will suffer harm that cannot be remedied or repaired by money. The party seeking the injunction must also show that it has a reasonable chance at winning when and if the case goes all the way to trial.
A permanent injunction is entered at the conclusion of a full-blown trial, with evidence being presented. Once the final judgment is entered, an injunction can be entered by the court, along with any monetary damages that a party may have suffered.
What is a TRO?
Although used interchangeably, a temporary restraining order, or TRO, is often used to stop harassing activity or activity that may cause physical harm or to prevent a person from engaging in certain behaviors.
Unlike temporary injunctions, which, if granted, will usually last until the ultimate, final outcome of the trial, TROs expire automatically after 10 days unless extended by the court.
Emergencies
In some cases, a party can get an emergency temporary injunction or restraining order entered without notice to the other side. These are only for short durations of time and only when notifying the other side may take too much time or when notification may present harm to the party asking for the injunction.
Do you need to have an injunction entered or to fight against one? Speak with a Chicago business litigation attorney at Ellis Legal at (312) 967-7629 today.