How to get an urgent court order
Sometimes waiting for the ordinary court process simply isn't possible. If you need immediate legal intervention to prevent serious harm, preserve your rights or compel someone to act, you may be able to approach the court on an urgent basis via an urgent application.
An urgent application is one in which you ask the court to hear your matter sooner than the ordinary court process allows, because waiting for the normal time periods would cause you substantial prejudice or make the relief you need ineffective.
You must be able to provide compelling reasons why the case cannot wait. The court looks at the circumstances and the prejudice that would result from following the ordinary procedure.
What types of situations count as urgent?
The first and most important thing to understand is that, while a case may be urgent to you, it is not necessarily urgent to the court. It may be very important to you to collect money from a debtor before payday so that you can pay your staff on time, but that does not qualify as urgent in the eyes of the court.
The Urgent Court deals with up to 30 cases in a day, and the Judge is required to read through hundreds of pages of information across those cases. They only accept the most urgent cases, for example:
urgent spoliation applications for tenants who have been evicted from their rental properties without a court order.
someone is about to permanently dispose of assets, for example sell a property to prevent their creditor from being able to recover monies due.
A political party is planning to stage an illegal protest which is likely to cause irreversible destruction to property.
How do you get an urgent court order?
If your case is truly urgent, the law requires you to act immediately. Many urgent applications are thrown out of court because the applicant waited too long to institute it - the logic being if it was truly urgent, you would not have waited so long to bring it. Be aware that the first thing the opposing party will argue in defence is that your application is NOT urgent - so you need to have compelling evidence to show that it is, and act quickly.
What can the court order?
Depending on the circumstances, an urgent application may seek an interim interdict, an order preserving property or evidence, an order preventing particular conduct, or other immediate relief.
Contact us
Maybery Inc's Attorneys are experienced both in bringing successful urgent applications and in defence against them. We have succeeded in 6 out of 6 urgent applications in 2026. If you have an urgent case requiring legal assistance, contact us immediately to ensure you meet the legal requirements of urgency.
The above information is for illustrative purposes only and does not take into account your specific circumstances. It therefore does not constitute legal advice. Please contact us for comprehensive advice to address your circumstances. Under no circumstances should any person use the above information in an attempt to circumvent the provisions of legislation or contract, or to cause damage to any other person. Always ensure you and your company are in compliance with the law in all dealings. This information is accurate as of the date of publication.
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