An injunction is a request to the court for immediate relief from harm or potential harm. Its purpose is to stop harmful activity, prevent future misconduct, or maintain the status quo during the pending litigation. While courts are often hesitant to grant such relief, recent trends suggest a shift in attitude, especially within the cannabis sector.
As any of our litigators will tell you, securing an injunction in California is no easy feat. However, California courts may be willing to grant them if cannabis licenses are at stake, in addition to other circumstances such as actual or threatened intellectual property infringement.
What are the legal standards for injunctions?
To receive an injunction, a plaintiff must convince the court, among other things, of the likelihood of success on the merits of its claims and that it will suffer irreparable harm without the relief. As to the first part, the plaintiff must show it will likely succeed on at least one cause of action in its complaint. This does not mean a certainty of success; it is simply that the facts and the law demonstrate a good possibility of prevailing. While this may seem daunting, a well-pled complaint usually meets this threshold requirement.
The toughest hurdle is demonstrating irreparable harm to the court. If the harm is not imminent, or if the injured party can be made whole via a monetary award, an injunction will be denied. For example, if there is simply a threat of lost money, as opposed to some kind of intangible or non-monetary harm, the injunction will probably be denied.
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