Houston Injunctive Relief Attorneys

TROs and Temporary Injunctions in Houston

When a former employee walks out the door and starts calling your clients, you do not have time for a drawn-out legal process. Neither does a business owner whose partner just moved company funds, or a company whose former employee is poaching clients. In those situations, you need to stop the bleed fast – not wait for a damages award two years down the line. You need what the courts call injunctive relief.

Injunctive relief is a court order that stops damaging conduct almost immediately. Hendershot Cowart P.C. has helped Texas businesses secure emergency injunctions like this for nearly 40 years – since 1987. 

If your business is being harmed right now, call (713) 783-3110 or contact us online.

On This Page

• What Is Injunctive Relief in Texas?
• Types of Injunctions: TRO, Temporary Injunction, and Permanent Injunction
• TRO vs. Temporary Injunction vs. Permanent Injunction
• Why Texas Businesses Seek Injunctive Relief
• What You Must Prove to Get Injunctive Relief in Texas
• How to Petition a Texas Court for Injunctive Relief
• What Should You Do if a TRO Has Been Issued Against You?
• What Happens if an Injunction Is Violated?
• How We Help
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Injunctive Relief in Texas?

Injunctive relief is a Texas court order requiring a person or business to stop or compel a specific action. It applies when the harm is imminent and money damages alone would not make you whole.

Most requests for injunctive relief come out of the same handful of disputes: a former employee competing in violation of a non-compete, a competitor using misappropriated trade secrets, a partner breaching fiduciary duties, or interference with your contracts and business relationships.

Types of Injunctions: TRO, Temporary Injunction, and Permanent Injunction

Texas courts issue injunctive relief in three stages. Each one has its own duration and demands a different level of proof.

The Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)

A TRO is the emergency stage. It exists to freeze the situation – what courts call the status quo – long enough for the court to hold a real hearing.

A TRO can be granted ex parte, meaning without notice to the other side. That is unusual in American courts, and it is allowed only when specific facts in a sworn affidavit or verified petition show that immediate and irreparable injury will occur before the other side can be served and heard. 

The procedural requirements are strict. A TRO that fails to comply with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – stating the injury, explaining why it is irreparable, explaining why it should be issued without notice, describing the restrained conduct in specific detail, and setting a bond – will not be acted upon by the courts.

The Temporary Injunction (TI)

A temporary injunction is a longer-lasting order that maintains the status quo while the case is litigated. Unlike a TRO, a temporary injunction may never be issued without notice to the opposing party. It requires a formal evidentiary hearing – often described as a “mini-trial” – with live witnesses and cross-examination, before the court will grant one. 

Since a temporary injunction is designed to be temporary, the court order will also set the case for trial on a specific date.

The Permanent Injunction

A permanent injunction is the court's final order, issued after a full trial. It stops or requires specific conduct, either permanently or for as long as the underlying agreement says it should. In a non-compete dispute, for example, the injunction enforces the agreement's restrictions for whatever time remains of its term.

TRO vs. Temporary Injunction vs. Permanent Injunction

Federal courts in Texas follow their own rules. The federal equivalent to a temporary injunction is a preliminary injunction, and the proof test is the four-factor standard described below.

Why Texas Businesses Seek Injunctive Relief

Injunctive relief is a common remedy in these types of Texas business disputes:

• Non-compete agreement violations. Employers often seek TROs and temporary injunctions to enforce non-compete agreement violations and non-solicitation covenants, and to stop the use of customer lists, pricing data, and proprietary processes. 
• Trade secret misappropriation. Under the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, actual or threatened misappropriation may be enjoined (stopped) through an injunctive order. The order cannot stop a person from using the general knowledge, skill, and experience they acquired on the job, but it can protect your hard-won confidential information. 
• Partner, shareholder, and LLC member disputes. When a co-owner locks you out of the accounts, moves money, diverts an opportunity, or transfers company property, an injunction can freeze assets and halt unauthorized decisions while the partnership dispute is resolved. These claims often go hand-in-hand with breach of fiduciary duty claims.
• Trademark infringement and tortious interference. Continued use of a confusingly similar trademark damages goodwill in ways that are hard to calculate, making it a prime candidate for injunctive relief. The same logic applies when a competitor's ongoing conduct threatens business relationships that financial damages cannot restore.
• Pending business transactions. When a party to a merger, acquisition, or real estate deal threatens to breach the agreement or transfer disputed assets, an injunction can hold the transaction in place until the dispute is resolved.
• Franchise disputes. Franchisors seek injunctions to enforce post-termination obligations and to stop former franchisees from operating competing businesses in violation of non-compete clauses. See our franchise dispute resolution page.

What You Must Prove to Get Injunctive Relief in Texas

In Texas state court

In Texas state court, a court may issue a TRO when the applicant can prove these three elements:

1. There is a cause of action against the defendant, such as breach of fiduciary duty or trademark infringement.
2. There is a probable right to the relief sought, i.e., there is enough evidence that you are likely to win.
3. There is a probable, imminent, and irreparable injury in the meantime. An injury is irreparable when the injured party cannot be adequately compensated in money, or when the damages cannot be measured by any certain standard.

Courts also weigh the hardship the order would impose on the restrained party and may even consider the effect on the public.

For an ex parte TRO, there is an additional burden. You must show, through specific facts in an affidavit or verified petition, that the harm will happen before the other side can be served and heard. 

In federal court

In federal court, an applicant must clearly prove: 

1. A substantial likelihood of success on the merits; 
2. A substantial threat of irreparable harm without the injunction; 
3. That the threatened harm outweighs the harm the order would cause the other side; and 
4. That the injunction would not disserve the public interest. 

While all four factors are required, the likelihood of success on the merits and the extent of potential irreparable injury often hold the most weight in federal court. 

One important exception for non-competes

Disputes over non-compete agreements are different. Under the Texas Covenants Not to Compete Act, a court may award injunctive relief, damages, or both for breach of an enforceable covenant – without having to prove that irreparable harm is imminent as both state and federal law demands for other injunctive orders.

To be enforceable in Texas, a non-compete agreement must be ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement, and reasonable in time, geographic area, and scope of activity. 

Texas amended its non-compete law in 2025, adding new required provisions for physicians and certain other healthcare providers. If your physician non-compete agreements predate those changes, they are worth a second look.

How to Petition a Texas Court for Injunctive Relief

The process moves fast, and each step has specific and detailed requirements. Here is how it works in Texas state court:

Step 1: Prepare and File the Application

The first step in seeking injunctive relief is to file a lawsuit in the appropriate county together with (or followed by) an application for injunctive relief. 

Most requests for injunctive relief start with a request for a TRO, but you can skip that step if the request is not an emergency or there is no longer an "element of surprise" to protect. In that case, you can petition the court for a temporary injunction (step 5 below) which, if issued, lasts until the lawsuit is resolved.

Step 2: Decide Whether to Proceed Without Notice

If the harm is so imminent that telling the other side would itself allow damage to happen, you can ask for an “ex parte” TRO, meaning without notice to the other side. That request must include specific facts shown by affidavit demonstrating that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result before the other side can be served and heard. 

Step 3: Post the Bond

The party requesting the injunction usually must post a cash or surety bond to protect the other side from financial harm if the restriction turns out to have been wrongly granted.

Step 4: The TRO Hearing

At a TRO hearing, a judge decides whether to issue a short-term order halting conduct that threatens immediate, irreversible harm. It happens on an emergency basis, often within days of filing. 

If a TRO is issued, a hearing for a temporary injunction must be held within 14 days. 

If a court denies your TRO, you have not lost. The case continues, and so does your request for injunctive relief. The timeline does change, though: Instead of scheduling a TI hearing within 14 days, the court can set the TI hearing at its own discretion based on the judge’s calendar. 

Step 5: The Temporary Injunction Hearing

A TI hearing is like a mini trial. The other side gets notice, both sides gather evidence, and the court hears live testimony and cross-examination. While not as thorough as a full trial, a TI hearing does give the court an opportunity to examine the facts and questions of law. 

If a temporary injunction is issued, the resulting court order must state the reasons for the injunction, describe the restrained conduct in specific detail, and set a trial date.

Step 6: Appeal

An order granting or denying a temporary injunction can be appealed immediately, within 20 days, without waiting for the case to end. A TRO is different. It cannot be appealed directly – the restrained party's options are to move to dissolve it in the trial court or to seek mandamus relief from an appellate court – or simply wait out the 14-day expiration period.

What Should You Do if a TRO Has Been Issued Against You?

Being served with a TRO means you also have been sued, and you must meet certain deadlines to avoid a default judgment against you. Here is what to do, and what not to do.

• Obey the order. Read the entire document and identify exactly what you are prohibited from doing or required to do. Follow it even if you believe it is unfair, based on false statements, or legally wrong. The place to make that argument is in court, not by ignoring the order.
• Find the hearing date. The TRO will identify a date for the temporary injunction hearing. Because a Texas TRO expires within 14 days unless extended, that hearing is normally set inside that window. You have days, not weeks, to prepare a defense.
• Preserve everything. Do not delete emails, text messages, files, or device data connected to the dispute. Destroying evidence in anticipation of litigation is called “spoliation” and comes with severe penalties under Texas law. 
• Keep AI tools out of it. Write down your own timeline of events while the details are fresh but do share case-specific facts with any cloud-based AI platforms. A 2026 federal ruling held that conversations with AI chatbots are not privileged and can be produced in discovery. Route sensitive case details to your attorney, not to ChatGPT, Claude, or similar tools. 
• Route communication through counsel. Do not call, text, or email the other party, and do not ask anyone to do it for you. Anything you say becomes an exhibit at the hearing.
• Do not wait to hire a litigation attorney. There is more than one way to fight a TRO. You can move to dissolve it, challenge the procedural sufficiency of the order, or focus on defeating the temporary injunction at the hearing. Texas courts enforce the procedural requirements strictly, and orders that fail to meet them have been held void. Choosing among those paths in the first 48 hours matters.

If you received a demand before any lawsuit was filed, see our page on responding to cease-and-desist letters.

What Happens if an Injunction Is Violated?

An injunction is a direct order from a judge. Violating one is treated as defiance of the court itself, and Texas courts take it seriously.

• Contempt of court. The party who obtained the order can ask the court to require the violator to appear and explain. Texas law allows a court to punish contempt with confinement of up to six months, a fine of up to $500, or both. For an ongoing violation, a court may order a person confined until they comply – for example, until company files or property are returned.
• Fee-shifting and financial sanctions. Texas courts routinely order the violating party to pay the legal fees and court costs the other side incurred to enforce the order. Depending on the claims involved, additional civil penalties may apply.
• Damage to the underlying case. This consequence gets overlooked, and it is often the most costly. A party who ignores a court order loses credibility with the judge who will decide every remaining issue in the case. Expect harder rulings on future motions and a broader, stricter injunction at the next stage.

If you obtained an injunction and the other side is not complying, document each violation with dates, screenshots, communications, and witnesses, then bring it to your attorney promptly. Enforcement is only as strong as the record supporting it.

How We Can Help

Emergency injunction practice is a different discipline from ordinary litigation. The petition, the verification, the supporting affidavits, and the proposed order all must be built correctly and quickly, because a defect can overturn a hard-won injunction. On the defense side, a response must be assembled in days.

The business litigation attorneys at Hendershot Cowart P.C. handle both sides of injunctive relief, including:

• Applying for emergency relief – preparing verified petitions, affidavits, and proposed orders that satisfy the procedural requirements, presenting the application, and handling the bond.
• Defending against a TRO or injunction – moving to dissolve, challenging the order's sufficiency, contesting the bond, and preparing your case for the temporary injunction hearing.
• Building the evidentiary record – expedited discovery, forensic evidence of data access and transfer, and witness preparation on a compressed schedule.
• Settling after the TI hearing – The court's ruling often signals which side is likely to prevail, and that signal pushes many cases toward settlement rather than a full trial. Our attorneys negotiate that resolution on your behalf.

Call (713) 783-3110 or contact us online to discuss your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How fast can I get a TRO in Texas?

In Texas, courts commonly schedule TRO hearings within 24 to 48 hours of the application. Speed depends on the court's docket, the county, and whether your application is complete and properly verified when you file it. 

What happens when the TRO expires?

The temporary injunction hearing replaces it. If you obtained the TRO and do not proceed at that hearing, the court will dissolve the order. If the court grants a temporary injunction, the restrictions continue until final judgment. If it denies one, the restraints lift and the case proceeds toward trial.

Can I appeal a temporary injunction?

Yes. An order granting or denying a temporary injunction is immediately appealable as an interlocutory order, within 20 days. A TRO is different. It is not directly appealable, and the best option is to wait out the 14 days and work with a litigation attorney to prepare for the TI hearing.

Does my non-compete have to be enforceable before a court will restrict the activities of a former employee?

Yes. The covenant not to compete must be ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement and reasonable in time, geographic area, and scope of activity. If the limits are unreasonable, a Texas court will reform the covenant to what is reasonable – but reformation limits the employer's access to injunctive relief, and no damages will be awarded for the period before the agreement was reformed. Learn more about non-compete agreements.

The other side got a TRO against my business. Is it too late to fight?

No. A TRO is a preliminary order entered on limited evidence, often without your participation. The temporary injunction hearing (usually held within 14 days of the TRO) is your opportunity to fight the injunction. At the TI hearing, the judge will weigh both side’s evidence and testimony, and rule on whether the injunction should continue. 

Comply with the TRO in the meantime and call an attorney immediately.

Talk to a Houston Injunctive Relief Attorney

Whether you need a court to stop conduct that is damaging your business right now, or you have been served with an order and have days to respond, the attorneys at Hendershot Cowart P.C. are ready to take up the fight.

For nearly 40 years, our law firm has represented business owners in high-stakes disputes across Texas – from Harris and Fort Bend Counties to the booming central Texas business districts to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

Call (713) 783-3110 or contact us online to discuss your situation. The sooner you act, the more options you have.