An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that either prohibits or compels ("enjoins" or "restrains") a party from continuing a particular activity. The party that fails to adhere to the injunction faces civil or criminal contempt of court and may have to pay damages or sanctions for failing to follow the court's order. This article is about concept of equity in Anglo-American jurisprudence. ... A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties before the court and requires or authorises the carrying out of certain steps by one or more parties to a case. ... Contempt of court is the failure to obey a lawful order of a court, disrespect for the judge, disruption of the proceedings through poor behavior, or publication of material deemed likely to jeopardize a fair trial. ...

Basis of injunctions

At the very core of injunctive relief is a recognition that money damages can't solve every problem. An injunction may be permanent or it may be temporary. A temporary injunction (or preliminary injunction) is a provisional remedy granted to restrain activity on a temporary basis until the court can make a final decision after trial. It is usually necessary to prove the high likelihood of success upon the merits of one's case and a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of a preliminary injunction before such an injunction may be granted; otherwise the party may have to wait for trial to obtain a permanent injunction. A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard. ...

Temporary restraints

In United States law, a temporary restraining order (or TRO) may be issued on a short-term basis until the court decides whether to issue a preliminary injunction. Thus, the relationship between a TRO and a preliminary injunction is the same as the relationship between a preliminary injunction and a permanent injunction. In some cases a TRO may be granted ex parte, i.e. without informing the party to whom the TRO is directed in advance. Usually such ex parte orders are of a short term and are to prevent one's adversary from having notice of one's intentions. Such notice may prohibit the eventual object of the application for an injunction from doing something that would make the court's granting of an injunction fruitless, such as wasting or hiding assets as often occurs in dissolution of marriage or in the disclosing of a trade secret that had been the subject of a non-disclosure agreement. The law of the United States is derived from the common law of England, which was in force at the time of the Revolutionary War. ... Ex parte is a Latin legal term meaning from (by or for) one party (pronounced ekss par-TAY or ekss par-TEE, although the proper Latin is Eks PAR-teh). An ex parte decision is one decided by a judge without requiring the plaintiff to be present. ... Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage, which can be contrasted with an annulment which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support, child custody and distribution of property. ... A trade secret is a confidential practice, method, process, design, or other information used by a company to compete with other businesses. ... A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or confidential disclosure agreement (CDA) is a legal contract between two parties which outlines confidential materials the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict from generalized use. ...

Rationale behind injunctions

This injunctive power to restore the status quo ante; that is, to make whole again someone whose rights have been violated, is essential to the concept of fairness (equity). For example, money damages would be of scant benefit to a land owner who wished simply to prevent someone from repeatedly trespassing on his land. The ability of the landowner to use the courts to sue the trespasser for injunctive relief is often the only practical way to end the trespass (the government may or may not bring criminal trespass charges at the landowner's urging; the civil power is in the landowner's own hands). Once the order is secured, the trespasser violates it at his own peril, risking fines and imprisonment for contempt of court. A sign warning against trespassing In law, trespass can be: the criminal act of going into somebody elses land or property without permission; it is also a civil law tort that may be a valid cause of action to seek judicial relief and possibly damages through a lawsuit. ... Contempt of court is the failure to obey a lawful order of a court, disrespect for the judge, disruption of the proceedings through poor behavior, or publication of material deemed likely to jeopardize a fair trial. ...

Courts may also issue mandatory injunctions, also called mandatory orders, i.e. equitable relief to compel a person to do a specific act or acts or follow a course of conduct; though in some jurisdictions courts will not issue mandatory orders that require judicial oversight to ensure compliance with the judge's order.

Injunctions in U.S. labor law context

After the United States government successfully used an injunction to outlaw the Pullman boycott in 1894, employers found that they could obtain federal court injunctions to ban strikes and organizing activities of all kinds by unions. These injunctions were often extremely broad; one injunction issued by a federal court in the 1920s effectively barred the United Mine Workers of America from talking to workers who had signed yellow dog contracts with their employers. The government of the United States, established by the United States Constitution, is a federal republic of 50 states, a few territories and some protectorates. ... Pullman Strike began on May 11, 1894. ... 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The term federal court, when used by itself, can refer to: Any court of the national government in a country that has a federal system such as that of the United States (United States federal courts) or Mexico In some countries, a particular court, for example, the Federal Court of... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... United Mine Workers of America seal The United Mine Workers (UMW or UMWA) is a United States labor union that represents workers in mining. ... A Yellow Dog contract is legal contract or agreement made between and employer and an employee, wherein the employer agrees to employ the employee, and in exchange the employee agrees not to join or associate with a labor union. ... A contract is any legally-enforceable promise or set of promises made by one party to another and, as such, reflects the policies represented by freedom of contract. ...

Unable to limit what they called "government by injunction" in the courts, labor and its allies persuaded the U.S. Congress in 1932 to pass the Norris-LaGuardia Act, which imposed so many procedural and substantive limits on the federal courts' power to issue injunctions as to effectively prohibit all federal court injunctions in cases arising out of labor disputes. A number of states followed suit and enacted "Little Norris-LaGuardia Acts" that imposed similar limitations on state courts' powers. The courts have since recognized a limited exception to the Norris-LaGuardia Act's strict limitations in those cases in which a party seeks injunctive relief to enforce the grievance arbitration provisions of a collective bargaining agreement. Seal of the Congress. ... The Norris-LaGuardia Act (Sen. ... A grievance is a formal statement of complaint, generally against an authority figure. ... Arbitration, in the context of law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution — specifically, a legal alternative to litigation whereby the parties to a dispute agree to submit their respective positions (through agreement or hearing) to a neutral third party (the arbitrator(s) or arbiter(s)) for resolution. ... Collective bargaining is the process of negotiation between trade unions (or labor unions, as they are called in the USA) and employers (represented by management) in respect of the terms and conditions of employment of employees, such as wages, hours, working conditions and grievance procedures, and about the rights and... Look up Agreement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary An agreement may be an agreement in beliefs, rules, practices (policies), or conduct. ...