One of the most important aspects of protecting a client’s rights is obtaining temporary injunctive relief from a court. This relief usually takes the form of an order precluding a defendant from closing a deal, selling real estate, secreting funds, using certain information, contacting certain clients, or performing work for certain competitors.

Without this type of relief, a party may lose valuable rights – forever. For example, the loss of trade secrets and confidential information can be like humpty dumpty falling off the wall – you cannot put him back together again. Additionally, it is often impossible to truly value the loss or damage to the plaintiff after the confidential information or trade secrets have been improperly used. Even if the damage is measurable, there may be no way to collect it from the party improperly using the information. Therefore, it is often necessary for a plaintiff to obtain immediate injunctive relief to protect its rights.

On the other hand, defendants have their own right to act as they choose. Defendants will need to be armed with all of the procedural and substantive law of injunctions to defend against the plaintiff’s request for injunctive relief. This paper attempts to give a general overview of the procedural requirements for obtaining and defending against temporary restraining orders and temporary injunctions in Texas state court. The paper also provides guidance as to the avenues to protect a party’s recovery via temporary injunctive relief.