If you need to preserve or prevent the loss of an asset, protect against personal harm, prevent loss or damage to reputation and safeguard business or personal interests, it may be necessary to apply for an injunction.
An injunction is a court order requiring a party to do or stop doing a certain act. An interim injunction is a temporary injunction, which is usually granted pending a further hearing or until a full trial of the dispute. Before granting an injunction, the court must be satisfied that there is a serious issue to be tried and that damages would not be an adequate remedy.
It is important for you to be advised whether an injunction is a suitable remedy and whether, tactically, it is the right move. We advise on the risks and consequences inherent in this type of case and we navigate our clients through any difficult PR and reputational issues. We have a team of experienced dispute resolution lawyers with wide ranging expertise in this field. If you need this emergency remedy, you are in safe hands.
By their nature, an application for an injunction will usually require lawyers to work urgently (sometimes round the clock) as it is important to strike at the right time and/or react with speed and intelligence when on the receiving end of an application for injunctive relief.
Typically, we apply for and obtain injunctions in the following situations:
- Defamation and privacy matters
- Freezing orders e.g. freezing bank accounts or assets
- Protection from harassment
- Preventing nuisance and trespass
- Preventing breach of contract or confidence
- Preventing copyright infringement
- Enforcing restrictive covenants, including restraint of trade and non-compete clauses
- Restraining sale of land or property
- Restraining winding up petitions
- Search orders, e.g. to preserve evidence and/or property
- Specific performance, e.g. an order requiring a party to perform a specific act
Recent work
- Acting for a football club, successfully challenging an injunction in relation to the publication of confidential information
- Representing a local authority in relation to civil proceedings brought against three defendants for the fraudulent misuse of local authority land involving the dumping of waste materials, which included obtaining freezing and search orders against the defendants prior to issuing proceedings
- Acting for former CEO of Kuwaiti family property management company with a portfolio in excess of £100m in respect of allegations of fraud and breaches of fiduciary duty, including opposing the award of a freezing injunction
- Acting for a client responding to search and seizure orders in connection with a large series of proceedings concerning frauds in excess of $1.5bn allegedly perpetrated on a bank in Kazakhstan by its former chair and majority shareholder
- Advising a global pharmaceutical company in relation to obtaining an injunction to force a third party to release highly valuable drugs needed for patients in cancer trials, which the third party had refused to release due to a US/Cuban trade embargo
- Acting for a high profile public figure in a privacy injunction helping to keep personal information and a ‘sex tape’ from the public eye