An injunction is a court order that requires a person or entity to either stop doing or start doing a specific action. It is an equitable remedy that originated in the English courts of equity and is given when a wrong cannot be effectively remedied by an award of money damages. There are three main types of injunctions: temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, and permanent injunctions.
Injunctions are intended to make whole someone whose rights have been violated and are given in many different kinds of cases. They can prohibit future violations of the law, such as trespass to real property, infringement of a patent, or the violation of a constitutional right. Or they can require the defendant to repair past violations of the law. Injunctions are also used by a court when monetary restitution isnt sufficient to remedy the harm.
To be granted an injunction, the plaintiff must demonstrate that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm without it, that the injunction’s benefit to them outweighs its burden on the defendant, that the injunction is in the public interest, and (in the case of a preliminary injunction) that they are likely to succeed in the eventual trial.
Injunctions are an equitable remedy and are therefore available only in cases of in-personam jurisdiction, and not in in-rem or quasi-in-rem jurisdiction.
