Court order

[2] Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out of certain steps by one or more parties to a case.

A court order must be signed by a judge; some jurisdictions may also require it to be notarized.

If an individual violates the court order, the judge may hold that person in contempt.

An order can be as simple as setting a date for trial or as complex as restructuring contractual relationships by and between many corporations in a multi-jurisdictional dispute.

Some orders, however, are spoken orally by the judge in open court, and are only reduced to writing in the transcript of the proceedings.