When the ATROs Start
The ATROs become effective against the filing party when the petition is filed and the summons is issued. They become effective against the other party when that party is personally served with the petition and summons, or when service is waived and accepted. Once effective, they remain in place until the petition is dismissed, a final judgment is entered, or the court makes a different order. Those timing rules are reflected in Family Code section 233 and in the text of form FL-110.
What the ATROs Restrict
The summons restrains both parties from removing the minor children from California or applying for a new or replacement passport for them without the other party's written consent or a court order. It also restrains both parties from cashing out, borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing beneficiaries on insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability insurance held for the benefit of the parties or their children. In addition, it restrains both parties from transferring, encumbering, concealing, or otherwise disposing of property, whether community, quasi-community, or separate property, without the other party's written consent or a court order. These restrictions are laid out in Family Code section 2040 and on the summons itself.
Important Exceptions
The ATROs do not freeze everyday life completely. The summons specifically allows transactions made in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life. It also expressly allows a party to use community property, quasi-community property, or separate property to pay an attorney or court costs. The summons further requires the parties to give each other at least five business days' notice of proposed extraordinary expenditures and to account to the court for extraordinary expenditures made after the ATROs take effect. Those exceptions also appear in section 2040 and FL-110.
Why They Exist
The purpose of the ATROs is to preserve the status quo while the case is pending. They are designed to prevent one side from moving children out of state, changing insurance coverage, or moving or hiding property before the court or the parties can address those issues in an orderly way. California's rules require the clerk to issue a family law summons that includes these automatic restraining orders, and the rules state that they are served and enforced in the same manner as other restraining orders. See California Rule of Court 5.50.
They Apply to Both Sides
A common point of confusion is that the ATROs are mutual. They do not apply only to the person who was served. Once the case is filed, the filing party is already bound, and once service is completed, the responding party is bound as well. The summons itself states that these restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until dismissal, judgment, or further court order. That framework comes from Family Code section 233 and FL-110.
They Can Be Changed by Agreement or Court Order
The ATROs are automatic, but they are not always permanent in their exact form. The restrictions can be changed by written consent of the other party where the summons allows consent, or by a court order. California's family law rules also allow the court to issue individual restraining orders that supersede the standard restraining orders in the summons. See Rule 5.50(c).
Practical Takeaway
For most people, the practical rule is simple: once a divorce summons is involved, do not move children out of California, do not change insurance, and do not transfer or hide property without either written agreement or a court order. The ATROs are automatic, they apply to both sides, and they stay in place until the case ends or the court changes them.
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