There’s no denying that a divorce is a stressful event in itself, and when there’s domestic violence or threats of violence involved, the matter becomes even more straining. Thankfully, there are matters that one can take to feel safer, and one of the best and most common ones is a restraining order.

How does a restraining order work? How do you obtain it? Will it affect your divorce? You can find the answers to these questions and more below.

What Is a Restraining Order

A restraining order, or protective order as it is also often called, is a court order that stops an individual from performing certain actions. When it comes to a divorce process, there are two types of restraining orders that can be issued.

Automatic Restraining Order

Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders, or ATROs, are a court measure that is issued without one or both parties requesting it. It comes into life the moment the divorce paperwork is filed in court.

The purpose of an ATRO is to stop any of the divorcing parties from changing the financial status of the marriage. Usually, it will prevent you from doing things like changing bank accounts or closing the joint bank account, selling or transferring property, or modifying the beneficiaries on policies such as life insurance, health insurance, or the will.

The ATRO also prohibits one parent from removing a child or children from the state in which the divorce proceedings are taking place without the written consent of the other parent. It’s important to know, however, that this doesn’t apply if the child or children are already living out of state – neither do they need to come back.

Sometimes you might not even know that you’re violating the Automatic Temporary Restraining Order, which is why it’s important that you ask your lawyers what kind of actions would cause that to happen.

Domestic Violence Restraining Order

This is, you could say, a more serious type of restraining order. It is issued when either an act of domestic violence has already occurred or when there’s a threat of violence.