Judges are afforded almost absolute discretion when considering an application for a temporary restraining order (TRO), and a skilled attorney can increase the odds the judge will exercise that discretion in his client’s favor.
My time on the state court bench taught me that judges want to make the right decisions. Like all people, they rely heavily upon their instincts when they must make quick decisions based on incomplete information. Information is particularly incomplete in the risky situation of an ex parte application for a TRO: By definition, the application contains only one side of the story.
