When a contract is breached, damages are often not enough. A client may need the other side stopped — a former employee restrained from joining a competitor, a developer halted before they build in breach, or a threatened breach prevented before it ever happens. The injunction is the court order that does this, compelling a party to do something or to refrain from doing it. Because it is an equitable remedy, it is never available as of right: the court always retains discretion, and knowing how that discretion is exercised is what lets you advise a client realistically.
What this lesson covers:
- Nature and Types of Injunction — what an injunction is, and the difference between prohibitory, mandatory, final and interim orders.
- Final Injunctions — what a claimant must establish, and why negative covenants are enforced more readily.
- Interim Injunctions — the four-stage framework, the cross-undertaking in damages, and the balance of convenience.
- Personal Service and Restrictive Covenants — the limits on restraining employees and enforcing non-competes.
- Quia Timet Injunctions and Equitable Bars — preventing a breach before it occurs, and the equitable defences that can defeat any injunction.
- Damages in Lieu of an Injunction — the statutory power and the criteria for awarding money instead.