You Need a TRO in New York Tomorrow and You Are Not Admitted.

Two Clocks, and Only One of Them Waits.

The first clock is the injury. Funds are moving, a competitor is using your client's data, a closing is scheduled, or an asset is about to leave the jurisdiction. That clock does not care about your admission status.

The second clock is your pro hac vice motion. Under 22 NYCRR 520.11(a)(1) admission is in the discretion of the court, and a motion takes as long as the part takes. On an ordinary calendar that is weeks. Your emergency will not survive weeks.

The mistake that costs cases is treating the second clock as a prerequisite to the first. It is not. The emergency application goes in today, signed and filed by a New York attorney of record, and the pro hac vice motion goes in alongside it.

What CPLR 6313 Actually Requires.

CPLR 6313(a) permits a temporary restraining order pending a hearing on a preliminary injunction where “it appears that immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage will result unless the defendant is restrained before the hearing can be had.” The same subdivision directs that where the order is granted, “the court shall set the hearing for the preliminary injunction at the earliest possible time.”

Two statutory exclusions matter, and they catch people. No temporary restraining order may issue in a labor dispute except as provided by Labor Law article 20-A. And no temporary restraining order may issue against a public officer, board, or municipal corporation to restrain the performance of statutory duties. If your emergency touches either category, the analysis changes before you draft anything.

CPLR 6313(b) requires that the order and the papers on which it was granted be personally served in the same manner as a summons unless the court orders otherwise. Plan the service before you walk into the part, because a restraint you cannot serve is a restraint that does nothing.

The undertaking is discretionary at the temporary restraining order stage under CPLR 6313(c) and mandatory on a preliminary injunction under CPLR 6312(b). Come with a number your client can actually post, because the court will ask.

Who Can Stand Up in the Part.

22 NYCRR 520.11(c) provides that no attorney may be admitted pro hac vice “to participate in pre-trial or trial proceedings unless he or she is associated with an attorney who is a member in good standing of the New York bar, who shall be the attorney of record in the matter.” An emergency application is a pre-trial proceeding. The signature on the order to show cause and the lawyer at counsel table both have to be New York admitted.

That is the entire problem, and it is a solvable one. This office signs and files the application as attorney of record, appears on it, and argues it. You stay on the case, you draft, you know the facts, and your pro hac vice motion is pending while the restraint is in place.

A Rule That Cuts in Your Favor.

22 NYCRR 202.8-a addresses proposed orders. The rule contemplates that a proposed order should be submitted with motions of the kind that need a signable order in hand, and it expressly reaches motions for pro hac vice admission. It also directs that a proposed order should not accompany a dispositive motion.

The practical consequence is worth knowing on an emergency day. Your pro hac vice motion travels with its own proposed order. A justice who has just signed a temporary restraining order and set a preliminary injunction hearing has a reason to reach the admission motion, and the order is already sitting there for signature. Emergencies frequently produce faster admissions than ordinary motion practice does.

The Federal Emergency Path.

If your case belongs in the Southern or Eastern District, the sequence differs. Both districts have operated on joint local rules since January 2, 2026, and the pro hac vice provisions sit at Local Civil Rule 1.3(i) through (k).

The Southern District permits an oral motion for admission when time does not permit a written motion, and it maintains a Part 1 judge available after hours for genuine emergencies. That is the fastest admission path in either court system.

Two steps still come first, and both take real time. Your PACER pro hac vice access request has to be submitted before the filing, using a placeholder case number if the case has not been opened. And the written motion that follows the oral application needs a certificate of good standing issued within 30 days and signed by the clerk of your state's highest court, not by your state bar, unless you are admitted in Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, or Vermont.

Order of Operations on an Emergency Day.

What to Send Tonight.

Send the caption and index number if an action is pending. Send the contract, the assignment, the note, or whatever document creates the right you are enforcing. Send the correspondence that shows the breach and the date you learned of it, because the date you learned of it is the first thing an adversary attacks on irreparable injury. Send your client's position on an undertaking. Send your bar admissions and the status of your certificate of good standing.

This office has been handling New York court appearances and local counsel matters for 28 years across all five New York City boroughs and into Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Orange counties. Emergency applications are a routine part of that work. Email the papers and you will get an answer the same day on whether the application can go in tomorrow and what it needs.

Frequently Asked Questions.

Can I file a TRO in New York before my pro hac vice motion is granted?

Not on your own signature in state court. A New York attorney of record has to sign and file the emergency application and appear on it. That is the practical effect of 22 NYCRR 520.11(c), which conditions pro hac vice participation in pre-trial proceedings on association with an attorney admitted in New York who serves as the attorney of record. The workable sequence is that New York counsel files the order to show cause today and your pro hac vice motion is filed alongside it.

Do I have to give notice before applying for a TRO?

Usually yes. CPLR 6313(a) permits a temporary restraining order without notice only where it appears that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result before a hearing can be had. Most parts also have their own notice practice for emergency applications, and many require you to advise your adversary that you are appearing. Plan on giving notice unless the facts genuinely will not allow it, and be ready to explain on the record why they will not.

How fast does the preliminary injunction hearing get scheduled?

CPLR 6313(a) directs that where a temporary restraining order is granted the court shall set the hearing for the preliminary injunction at the earliest possible time. In practice that means the restraint is short and the real fight arrives quickly, so the papers you file tomorrow are the papers you will be arguing from within days.

Is the federal emergency path different?

Yes, and it is faster in one specific respect. The Southern District permits an oral motion for pro hac vice admission when time does not permit a written motion, and the district maintains an after-hours Part 1 judge for genuine emergencies. Two steps still come first. Your PACER pro hac vice access request goes in before the filing, and you still need a certificate of good standing from the highest court of your state within 30 days for the written motion that follows.