Injunction
Categories: Regulations
When a court steps in and says that we either need to do or stop doing something immediately, that’s an injunction. Their purpose is either to (a) prevent or ensure a certain behavior while legal proceedings run their course, or (b) prevent or ensure a certain behavior once legal proceedings have concluded.
Thirsty for more details? We thought so. Allow us to expand.
First, we’ve got preliminary injunctions. As the name suggests, these guys are designed to make something happen (or stop something from happening) while legal proceedings happen. For example, let’s say our real estate development company is about to build a new subdivision on the outskirts of town. All of a sudden, an environmental protection group sues us, saying that the land we want to build on is the last known breeding ground for some obscure and ultra-venomous breed of spider. The court issues a preliminary injunction to stop us from clearing the land until the lawsuit is settled; just in case the court finds in favor of the spider activists, they don’t want the breeding ground destroyed by our building plans in the meantime.
Second, we’ve got permanent injunctions, which usually happen after a case is settled. They’re basically a court’s way of saying that, from this day forward, as long as the current conditions exist, we either can’t do something or must do something. If our real estate development company loses the case in the above example, that preliminary injunction could be replaced by a permanent injunction telling us that we’ll never be able to build our subdivision on that piece of land.
And third, we’ve probably all heard of restraining orders. (And if we haven’t, perhaps we’re not watching enough true crime TV.) A restraining order is an injunction issued by a court telling someone to stay away from another person physically, and also to avoid contacting them. These are common in abuse and domestic violence cases, and their purpose is to immediately put a stop to whatever threatening, violent, or otherwise abusive behavior is going on.