When the other side is about to do something you cannot undo, an ordinary lawsuit is too slow. This is the filing that asks a judge to stop it now.
An emergency injunction is heard in days or weeks. A normal lawsuit takes a year or more.
That is the entire point of it. If money is about to leave the country, a sale is about to close, records are being deleted, or a former employee is walking your customer list to a competitor, the remedy that matters is the one that happens before the damage is permanent. Florida courts can order the other side to stop, and in urgent cases can do it before the other side is even heard. The trade-off is that the burden is on you, the evidence has to be ready at filing, and the window is short.
If Something Is Happening Right Now, Call.
Emergency relief is measured in hours and days. Do not start with a form. Call (305) 672-7495 Tell Aaron What Happened
Have the key documents and dates ready if you can, and be prepared to say what will happen if nobody stops it. Someone from the firm follows up to talk. Sending a form does not create an attorney client relationship and does not make the firm your lawyer, so please do not rely on a form alone when something is about to happen, and do not send confidential details until the firm has confirmed there is no conflict.
When a Business Needs Emergency Relief
- Money or assets are moving. Accounts being drained, funds transferred out, property about to be sold or encumbered.
- A closing or transfer is imminent. A sale, financing, or transfer of an ownership interest that would be very hard to unwind.
- A departing employee or partner took something. Customer lists, pricing, trade secrets, or a book of business, in breach of an agreement.
- Records are being destroyed or a business is being wound down while a dispute is live.
- You have been shut out of a company you own, and decisions are being made without you.
- A construction project, lease, or property is being altered in a way that cannot be reversed.
The common thread is irreversibility. If waiting means the harm cannot be fixed with money later, that is the case for moving now.
What Florida Actually Requires
An injunction is discretionary relief, and the standard is real. To obtain a temporary injunction in Florida you generally have to establish four things:
- Irreparable harm that will occur without the injunction.
- No adequate remedy at law, meaning money damages later will not fix it.
- A clear legal right to the relief, often framed as a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.
- That the injunction serves the public interest, or at least does not disserve it.
Two practical points that surprise most business owners:
You will almost certainly have to post a bond. Under the Florida rule governing injunctions, a temporary injunction generally is not entered unless the party seeking it gives a bond in an amount the court considers proper, to cover the other side's costs and damages if it turns out they were wrongfully enjoined. Unless the court sets a different schedule, the bond is posted within five days of the order setting it. The main exception is an injunction issued solely to prevent physical injury or abuse of a person, which is a different situation from a commercial dispute. Budget for the bond from the first conversation.
Getting an order without notifying the other side is possible but narrow. A Florida court can enter a temporary injunction without notice only where sworn, specific facts in an affidavit or verified pleading show immediate and irreparable injury will occur before the other side can be heard, and the moving attorney certifies in writing what efforts were made to give notice and why notice should not be required. It is not a shortcut, it is an exception, and it is granted on the strength of the sworn record you file.
Note also that a Florida temporary injunction remains in effect until the court orders otherwise, rather than expiring automatically on a fixed number of days as under the federal practice. The hearing schedule, not a built-in clock, controls what happens next.
One Place Florida Law Helps You
Irreparable harm is usually the hardest element to prove, because courts start from the assumption that money can fix most commercial problems. Restrictive covenants are the notable exception: Florida's restrictive covenant statute provides that the violation of an enforceable non-compete or similar covenant creates a presumption of irreparable injury. That single presumption is why non-compete and trade secret cases so often arrive as injunction proceedings rather than ordinary damages suits, and why they move so quickly once filed.
What to Gather in the Next 48 Hours
- The agreement that is being breached: the contract, operating or shareholder agreement, non-compete, NDA, or lease, with every amendment.
- Proof of what is about to happen. The closing notice, wire confirmation, listing, email, or message showing the transfer, sale, or solicitation.
- The money trail. Bank and account records showing what has moved and when.
- Dates. When you learned of it, when it is scheduled to happen, and what deadline you are up against.
- Who can swear to it. Injunctions run on affidavits. Identify the person with firsthand knowledge who can sign one.
- A litigation hold. Stop routine deletion of email, texts, and files immediately, on your side as well.
Do not confront the other side, and do not post about it. Anything said now shows up in the response to your motion.
Tell Aaron What Happened
One sentence about what is about to happen and when. That is enough to start. Call (305) 672-7495 Tell Aaron What Happened
When This Firm Fits
The Law Offices of Aaron Resnick, P.A. seeks and defends emergency relief in commercial disputes: partnership and shareholder fights, breach of contract, business fraud and fiduciary duty claims, non-compete and trade secret cases, and commercial real estate matters. Aaron has represented Miami business owners for more than twenty years, is AV Preeminent rated, has been named a Florida Super Lawyer for fourteen consecutive years, and is a past President of the Miami Beach Bar Association. Clients work directly with Aaron.
The firm does not handle personal injury, criminal, family, or immigration matters, and injunctions to prevent physical harm between individuals are a different area of law. If that is your situation, say so on the call and you will get a straight answer and, where possible, a direction to try instead.
Questions People Ask When They Need Relief Fast
How fast can I actually get an injunction in Florida?
Faster than any other civil remedy. A motion for a temporary injunction can be heard in days or weeks depending on the court and the urgency, and in a genuine emergency a court can consider relief without notice to the other side on the strength of a sworn affidavit. What controls the speed is not how upset you are but how complete your evidence is on the day you file. Cases that move fast are the ones where the documents, the dates, and the affidavit are ready at filing rather than assembled afterward.
What does an injunction cost, including the bond?
There are two separate costs. The legal work is front-loaded, because an injunction compresses months of preparation into days. Separately, Florida generally requires the party obtaining a temporary injunction to post a bond in an amount the court sets, to protect the other side if the injunction turns out to have been wrongly issued. That bond is money you must be able to put up, usually within five days of the order setting it, so it belongs in the conversation from the beginning rather than as a surprise later.
What happens if I lose the motion?
The underlying case continues. Denial of a temporary injunction is not a decision that you lose the lawsuit; it means the court was not persuaded that the extraordinary remedy was warranted at that stage, often because irreparable harm or likelihood of success was not established on the record presented. The practical consequences are lost time, legal cost, and the other side learning your theory early. That is precisely why the decision to seek emergency relief should be made on the evidence you actually have.
Can I get an injunction to stop a former employee from taking my customers?
This is one of the most common commercial injunction cases in Florida, and it is also where the law is most favorable to the employer, because violation of an enforceable restrictive covenant carries a statutory presumption of irreparable injury. Enforceability still has to be established: the covenant must be in writing, supported by a legitimate business interest, and reasonable in time, area, and line of business. What the agreement says, and what the employee actually did, both matter immediately.
The other side just got an injunction against my company. What now?
Move immediately, because the order is already binding and violating it carries contempt exposure. There are several avenues: seek dissolution or modification of the injunction, challenge the sufficiency of the sworn record it was based on, question the bond amount, or move to expedite a full hearing where the other side has to prove its case rather than rely on affidavits. Orders entered without notice are the most vulnerable, because they were granted on one side's evidence alone.
Is a receiver an alternative to an injunction?
Sometimes, and in ownership disputes it can be the better tool. Where the real problem is that the person in control of a company cannot be trusted with the money, appointing a receiver puts a neutral in charge of the business or the asset rather than simply ordering someone to stop. It is a serious step, courts do not grant it lightly, and it works best where the financial records already show a pattern rather than a single incident.
Law Offices of Aaron Resnick, P.A. · Miami, Florida · (305) 672-7495
Published July 29, 2026. Last updated July 29, 2026.
This page is general information about emergency injunctions and temporary restraining orders in Florida commercial disputes and is not legal advice. Injunction standards, bond requirements, and procedures depend on the rule, the court, and your facts, and they differ from the federal practice, so do not rely on this page in place of advice about your own situation. Reading this page, contacting the firm, or submitting a form does not create an attorney client relationship, and you should not send confidential information until representation is confirmed. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
