Rule 92.02.Temporary Restraining Order -- Notice -- Preliminary Injunction -- Bond -- Form and Scope.

Rule 92.02 is the workhorse rule behind Missouri's version of emergency injunctive relief. It covers three related but distinct tools: a temporary restraining order granted after notice to the other side, a temporary restraining order granted without notice, and a preliminary injunction that follows a full hearing. Each has its own showing, its own paperwork, and its own clock.

For a temporary restraining order with notice, the party seeking relief must show, through a verified petition or affidavit reciting specific facts, that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will occur without it. Except in the without-notice situation, the opposing party must get reasonable notice at least twenty-four hours before the hearing. Once granted, the order must be dated and timed, filed and entered of record right away, and it expires within fifteen days unless the court extends it in additional fifteen-day increments upon a continued showing of the same grounds.

A temporary restraining order without notice is harder to get and shorter-lived. The moving party must establish that notice cannot be given or would defeat the order's purpose, and the order is void from the start if it does not spell out the specific facts supporting that showing. It expires within ten days, extendable in additional ten-day blocks, generally only after notice to the other side. The adverse party can move to dissolve or modify it on one day's notice, or on shorter notice if the court allows it, and if the court later finds no reasonable basis existed for skipping notice, the rule presumes bad faith and a violation of Rule 55.03(c). A preliminary injunction, by contrast, always requires prior notice and a chance to be heard, and if a temporary restraining order has run more than thirty days without a preliminary injunction hearing, the court must schedule one promptly; the court may also fold that hearing into the trial on the merits while preserving any right to a jury.

None of this relief comes free. Except in suits the state itself brings, the party obtaining an injunction or temporary restraining order must post a bond, or an equivalent cash deposit, sufficient to secure the amount at stake and any damages the other side suffers if the order is later dissolved. Whatever order ultimately issues has to explain its own reasons, describe the restrained conduct in specific detail instead of by reference to the petition, and it binds only the parties, their agents and attorneys, and others who act in concert with them after receiving actual notice.