A provisional remedy is a remedy that the court gives a party before trial. It's a problematic concept: the allegations of a plaintiff's complaint are merely allegations. They haven't been proved, and won't be proved until trial, which may be years away. So the idea that the court may grant relief before the trial is antithetical to a fundamental concept of litigation.

But it's clear that unless the law permits the granting of provisional remedies, the litigation may be academic. Suppose, for example, that the debtor is about to hide all of his assets. Or that a defendant is about to cut down a grove of trees. Unless he's stopped from doing that right at the outset, there's nothing to be accomplished by continuing the litigation.

Preliminary Injunctions. Thus, when certain requirements are satisfied, the court will grant a provisional remedy. A frequently sought form of provisional relief is an order-- called a preliminary injunction-- preventing the defendant from doing a particular act. But requirements are stringent.

The hardest requirement to meet is the requirement that the plaintiff show irreparable harm-- i.e., harm that can't be repaired. For purposes of that element, if some injury may be compensated by the payment of money, that injury doesn't constitute irreparable. Thus, an example of irreparable harm would be chopping down the grove of trees, since the trees provide an aesthetic benefit that can't be measured in terms of money.

In the federal courts, it is also necessary to show either a of likelihood of success on the merits or fair grounds for litigation and a balance of hardships tipping decidedly in favor of the moving party. This showing isn't so easy to make either. But the ability to get a preliminary injunction may obviate the need to engage in years of litigation. That's because the injunction may create such a burden for the adversary that merely getting it brings him to the bargaining table.

Order of Attachment. Other forms of provisional relief prevent the litigation from becoming academic. For example, if the defendant's main asset is a piece of real estate, he may attempt to sell it and hide the money. To prevent that, it's possible to get an order of attachment, which becomes a lien on the property at the point that the order is served.

That way, a prospective buyer knows that if the moving party wins his law suit, the property becomes encumbered with the amount of the moving party's judgment. And in most instances, that knowledge will thwart the sale. But the showing required to get an order of attachment is hard: the moving party must show that the property owner is about to try to hide his assets, a showing that quite hard to make.