Art. 3603.Temporary Restraining Order; Affidavit Or Affirmation of Irreparable Injury and Notification Efforts

A temporary restraining order is Louisiana injunction practice's emergency tool, and Article 3603 sets the conditions that justify skipping notice to the other side. Two things have to be true together. First, specific facts, shown in a verified petition, a supporting affidavit, or the affirmation Article 3603.1 allows in certain domestic violence and related cases, have to make clear that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will happen before the adverse party or their attorney can be heard. Second, the applicant's attorney has to certify in writing what efforts were made to give notice, or explain why notice should not be required at all.

That second requirement matters because a no-notice order is an exception to the general rule requiring notice and a hearing before a preliminary injunction, and courts expect the applicant to have made a real effort toward notice, or to have a genuine reason why doing so would defeat the order's purpose, rather than skipping notice as a matter of convenience.

Article 3603 carries forward the same limit on TROs affecting child support enforcement that appears in Article 3601. It also addresses the property-denial scenario Article 3601 introduces: the plaintiff's affidavit that they are being denied the use or enjoyment of immovable property they own, possess, or lease, by a person with no legal interest in it, is itself sufficient to justify a no-notice TRO, without more.