SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Benedict Teo, Kelvin Tan, Kong Man Er and Shumin Lin, Drew & Napier LLC
6. Injunctive Relief 6.1 Circumstances of Injunctive Relief An injunction is an order of the court requiring a party to do or refrain from doing something. It may be per- manent or interim. A permanent injunction will be granted where the claimant’s rights have been infringed and will be fur- ther infringed if the injunction is denied and if dam- ages will not be an adequate remedy. An interim injunction is a protective order to preserve the status quo until the court can fully adjudicate the dispute. The jurisdiction to grant an interim injunction is based on three fundamental principles: • The interim injunction should protect some rec- ognisable right, in respect of which the applicant usually seeks substantive relief. There must be a serious question to be tried, and the balance of convenience must lie in favour of granting the inter- locutory relief. • An interim injunction does not finally decide the issues in dispute between the parties, but only seeks to protect parties from irreparable harm. The court should take whichever course appears to carry the lower risk of injustice. • If the court finds in the final judgment that an inter- im injunction had wrongly prevented a party from exercising rights, the court may seek to restore that party to the position it would have been in had it not been subjected to a restraint. The court may grant a variety of interim injunctions, including: • prohibitory injunctions, which restrain a party from performing a wrongful act; • proprietary injunctions, which restrain the defend- ant from dealing with a particular asset and its traceable proceeds; • Mareva injunctions, or injunctions prohibiting the disposal of assets, which restrain a defendant from dealing with the defendant’s assets so that the
to enable a party to trace the party’s property or for any other lawful purpose, in the interests of justice. 5.5 Legal Privilege A person has the right not to give discovery of docu- ments covered by legal professional privilege, which comprises two categories: • First, legal advice privilege covers any communica- tion made between a client and the client’s legal adviser, including in-house counsel, in the course of and for the purpose of employment of the legal adviser. The privilege extends to information the legal adviser receives in a professional capacity from a third party and conveys to the client. • Second, litigation privilege covers information and materials created and collected for the dominant purpose of the litigation, at a time when litigation is in reasonable contemplation. 5.6 Rules Disallowing Disclosure of a Document In addition to legal professional privilege, a party may rely on other exclusionary rules to withhold disclosure of certain documents. “Without prejudice” communications are statements made by opposing parties (or their solicitors) to each other in the course of settlement negotiations. “With- out prejudice” communications may not be disclosed unless both parties consent. Such protection from dis- closure is aimed at facilitating and encouraging out- of-court settlements. “Marital communications” privilege is a statutory right based on the policy that relationships between spouses ought not to be disrupted. No person who is or has been married can be compelled, or permitted, to disclose any communication made to that person during marriage by that person’s spouse. Such com- munications continue to be privileged even if the mar- riage comes to an end. Only the spouse who made the communication can waive the privilege.
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