Last updated: August 28, 2026
If a former employee took your client list on their way out the door, you can sue for legal claims like theft of trade secrets, breach of duty, and non-solicitation or non-compete agreement violations. But lawsuits can take months or years. Meanwhile, your clients are being actively solicited now.
What can you do? Texas and federal courts offer a legal remedy called injunctive relief.
What Injunctive Relief Means
Available under both Texas and federal law, injunctive relief is a court order, or injunction, directing a party to perform a certain action (such as delivering on a contract promise) or to stop damaging conduct (such as soliciting your clients).
Injunctions bridge the gap between the harm being done now and financial compensation potentially available at the end of a lawsuit. They also work to fix what money alone cannot.
Why Money Damages Are Not Always Enough
The ordinary remedy in a lawsuit is damages – the court decides what you lost and orders the other side to pay it. An injunction is different. It is an extraordinary remedy designed to prevent further damage while the lawsuit is still ongoing.
Because it is the exception rather than the rule, Texas and federal courts do not grant injunctions lightly. You must show that financial damages alone cannot compensate for the alleged injury or that the harm cannot be properly quantified in terms of money.
The Three Types of Injunctions
Texas courts issue injunctive relief in stages, and each has a different duration and a different burden of proof.
- Temporary restraining order (TRO). The emergency stage. It lasts up to 14 days and maintains the status quo until the court decides whether to issue a temporary injunction.
- Temporary injunction (TI). A longer-lasting order that typically lasts until the end of the lawsuit. It requires notice to the other side and a full hearing (comparable to a mini-trial) with live witnesses.
- A permanent injunction orders a party to do something (or not do something) permanently – or for a reasonable duration – and is usually only entered at the end of a lawsuit.
Each stage carries different deadlines and a different burden of proof. Our guide to injunctive relief in Texas walks through the process step by step.
Why Texas Businesses Seek Injunctive Relief – Real Scenarios
The scenarios below are drawn from actual matters our attorneys have handled. Each involved conduct that would have caused damage no judgment could undo.
- An adversarial business partner withdrew funds from the company's bank account, disrupting operations and damaging a critical vendor relationship
- Two former employees misappropriated our client’s trade secrets – including proprietary training materials and curriculum developed over years – and set up a competing business
- An employee left to work for a competitor in violation of an enforceable non-compete agreement
- A shareholder and employee of a closely held corporation was removed from her position and locked out of company accounts, files, and systems
- A warehousing company refused to release and ship our client's goods, in breach of its agreement
- An LLC member threatened to strip our client of an ownership interest in violation of the LLC’s operating agreement
- Prior to termination, an employee set up a competing business, infringing on company trademarks to divert business opportunities and create confusion in the marketplace
In each case, we sought an injunction to stop the harm and hold the situation in place until the court could decide the merits of the case.
What Injunctive Relief Cannot Do
Injunctive relief is a powerful remedy, but it has its limits.
- It does not resolve an unpaid invoice or recover lost profits. An injunction stops (or compels) conduct. If you want financial compensation, that is a damages claim, and it can sometimes proceed alongside an injunction.
- It does not stop mere suspicions of harm. You must be able to show concrete evidence of harm that cannot be undone through monetary damages. Mere assertions without supporting evidence fail to prove that harm is irreparable and imminent, and a judge will likely deny your petition.
- It rarely rescues a claim you sat on. Delay is the strongest argument against you. Courts reason that if the harm was truly urgent, you would have acted sooner – even a few weeks can damage your position. The same facts that might have supported an injunction in week one often will not by week eight.
- It does not stop someone from earning a living generally. In a trade secret case, a Texas court can stop a former employee from using your confidential information. It cannot stop them from using the general knowledge, skill, and experience they picked up while working for you.
- Temporary injunctions do not last forever. A TRO lasts up to 14 days. A temporary injunction stays in place until the final judgment in a lawsuit. Only a permanent injunction lasts beyond the lawsuit, and even that has limits: a court will not prohibit more conduct than the facts support, or for a longer duration than the underlying agreement covers.
Whether an injunction fits your situation depends on the facts. Call (713) 783-3110 or contact us online to schedule a one-hour consultation with a litigation attorney who can review your contracts and documents, walk through what happened, and explain the remedies available to you.
Talk to a Houston Business Litigation Attorney
If you are reading this because something is happening at your business right now, don’t delay. If you wait weeks to act, the judge may wonder if the harm to your business is actually urgent and worthy of an emergency court order.
Our attorneys have handled Texas business disputes since 1987. We help clients seek emergency orders and defend against them, and we will tell you candidly where you stand.
Don't wait until more damage is done. Call (713) 783-3110 or contact us online to discuss your situation.