Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: restraining a non-profit corporation

The 'restraining order' most people are familiar with in the domestic violence and harassment contexts is a very simplified, quickie version of the old equitable remedy of injunction, somewhat like the traffic ticket is a simplified, quickie version of a criminal indictment. Both are fill-in-the-blanks versions of a much more formal legal process, created by the legislature in response to modern society's needs.

Once you step outside the scope of the quickie procedures, you're back in the 18th Century.

A temporary restraining order is part of a system of so-called 'provisional remedies' designed by equity courts to provide interim relief while a matter was awaiting trial. The sequence was, first, the plaintiff gets a temporary restraining order, usually after a brief hearing, that's good for a couple of weeks until the court can hold a full-blown hearing. If warranted, the court would then turn the TRO into a preliminary injunction. Finally, after a trial and adjudication on the merits, the court would make the injunction 'permanent,' meaning final (although it might still have an expiration date and thus not be 'permanent' in the literal sense).

In order to restrain a corporation, you will PROBABLY need to (1) file a lawsuit, then (2) ask the court to grant provisional relief in the form of a temporary restraining order. I say probably because there may be exceptions I'm not aware of. In any event, you will need a lawyer to analyze your case, determine they types of legal and equitable relief you might obtain, including provisional remedies such as a TRO or injunction, then prepare, file and serve the papers, and appear with you at the hearing on the TRO. A few non-lawyer plaintiffs MIGHT be able to handle this without counsel, but believe me, it's very technical and demanding. Outside the fill-in-the-blanks restraining orders, courts are NOT very prone to grant provisional remedies.