Mark Bradshaw

The UK hire industry is a vital enabler of construction, facilities management and infrastructure resilience. Specialist hire businesses also help deliver world class sporting, music and business events as well as supply to hospitals and schools and across the public sector.

Very few people fully appreciate the powerful and flexible remedy offered by an injunction. Injunctions are extraordinary, both in terms of their timing and their effectiveness. Certain injunctions are issued with a rapidity otherwise unknown in the American legal system. Injunctions frequently have consequences so sweeping that they effectively shut down operating businesses or otherwise affect dramatically the rights of the parties involved in an irreversible manner – even when the requested injunction is refused. A relatively recent example of the power of a potential injunction is the request that a Delaware judge order Elon Musk to go forward with his purchase of Twitter. Musk had stated that he intended to back out of this deal, but relented and purchased what is now known as “X” rather than run the risk that he would be compelled to do so by court order. Many expressed surprise at the time that a judge had the authority to issue such an order. (In fact, the same judge had issued a similar order in an earlier case. Consequently, Mr. Musk had good reason for concern.)