Rule 65.Injunctions

Notice and sworn support. Except as two provisions of Title 13 allow, no preliminary injunction issues without notice to the adverse party and without a request appearing in a verified complaint, or a motion supported by affidavit. Two requirements, not one: the other side must know, and the application must be sworn.

Consolidating. Before or after the hearing begins, the court may order the trial on the merits advanced and consolidated with it. Where a case turns on a single question, hearing it twice helps nobody.

The evidence carries over. Evidence received on the application that would be admissible at trial becomes part of the trial record and need not be repeated. A party who put a witness on at the injunction stage does not have to bring them back.

Security. The court may require the applicant to give security, in such sum as it deems proper, for the costs and damages suffered by a party found to have been wrongfully enjoined. May, not must — which matters in a court where many applicants have no money and the harm they are trying to prevent is not financial.

Say what is forbidden. Every order granting an injunction must describe the act or acts enjoined in reasonable detail, and not by reference to the complaint or another document unless that document is served with the injunction. A person can be punished for breaching an injunction, so the injunction has to be readable on its own.