Injunction

Injunction, generally, an order or decree in the law of equity, requiring a defendant to refrain from committing a specific act—either continuing or threatened—injurious to the plaintiff (the person who brought the case to court). Injunctions are granted on the usual grounds for equitable actions, namely, that no adequate remedy exists in damages, and that the act complained of is causing, or will cause, irreparable damage to the plaintiff. Injunctions are generally preventive, restraining, or prohibitory in nature, but, on the same grounds, they may compel a defendant to undertake an affirmative act, for example, to destroy a wall that encroaches on the property of the plaintiff or to restore the course of a stream that has been diverted from the plaintiff's property. Such affirmative orders or decrees are called mandatory injunctions.

Injunctions are temporary or permanent. A permanent injunction is granted only after full hearing and adjudication of the case, and it is usually so phrased as to prohibit the defendant permanently from commission of the act complained of. When, however, the plaintiff's right is clear, a court may issue a temporary (interlocutory) injunction at the outset of the proceedings, to prevent the defendant from committing an act while the proceedings are pending. Such an injunction is granted if the plaintiff has an arguable case, and if, on balance, it would protect the plaintiff from more damage than it would cause the defendant.

To be enforceable, an injunction has to have a penal notice endorsed on it, warning the defendant of the possible penalties for non-compliance. An injunction must be served personally on the defendant.

Because of the many instances in which it may be used to prevent or halt the commission of wrongs, the injunction has become perhaps the most important remedy of an equitable nature. Injunctions are employed, for example, to restrain domestic violence, abate nuisances, prevent the violation of contracts, and protect patent rights. Failure to obey an injunction is a contempt of court, punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both.

In recent years, considerable controversy has attended the use of injunctions in labour disputes. In particular, in Britain injunctions will now be granted to prevent trade unions calling strikes unless they have first balloted their members. In the 1980s several unions in the United Kingdom had their assets seized by the courts when they breached such injunctions.

The English courts have recourse to specific interlocutory injunctions, such as the “search order” (formerly known as an “Anton Piller order”), which enables a litigant (a person who is party to a court action) to seize documents when it is feared they may be destroyed, and the “freezing injunction” (formerly known as a “Mareva order”), which freezes a litigant's assets when it is feared they may be removed from the jurisdiction. In addition, a court may grant the victim of domestic violence an order that offers protection from molestation or excludes the assailant from the home, often empowering the police to arrest the assailant if the order is breached.

If the court decides that a permanent injunction should have been granted, but would no longer serve its purpose, it has the power to grant damages instead.