Injunction proceedings

Is your case a matter of urgency? If so, instead of instituting proceedings on the merits, you can institute preliminary relief proceedings. Preliminary relief proceedings are relatively quick legal proceedings in which the judge (the so-called “preliminary relief judge”) will give a decision within a few weeks (and sometimes even within a few days). This decision will be a prohibition, an order to desist or an order to pay a sum of money (collection). 

The purpose of preliminary relief proceedings

Preliminary relief proceedings differ from normal proceedings (on the merits) as follows:

• You need a lawyer to institute preliminary relief proceedings.
• The matter you are referring to the judge in preliminary relief proceedings is urgent.
• You will usually receive a decision within a maximum of two months. This is in contrast to normal proceedings on the merits, in which a decision may sometimes take months (or years) to come through.
• The decision in preliminary relief proceedings is a provisional relief measure (i.e. the decision anticipates a final judgment in proceedings on the merits).
• After a judgment in preliminary relief proceedings, you have four weeks to appeal through a lawyer (this period is three months in proceedings on the merits).