Automatic Temporary Injunctions

Before we start: this is general information about Colorado family law — not legal advice, and not a substitute for talking to a lawyer about your specific situation.

Your Situation

The moment a divorce, legal separation, or parenting case is filed in Colorado, a set of automatic court orders — often called the "automatic temporary injunction" — clicks into place. You don't have to ask for these orders, and no judge has to sign off on them individually. They are built into the process. For the person who files, they take effect the moment the petition is filed. For the other spouse or parent, they take effect the moment they are personally served with the papers or sign a waiver accepting service.

These orders matter because they quietly reshape what you're allowed to do with money, property, insurance, and your children while the case is pending — and violating them, even without meaning to, can carry serious legal consequences. The orders exist to freeze the status quo so neither person can drain accounts, hide assets, cancel the family's health coverage, or suddenly move the kids out of state while the case plays out. This guide will walk you through exactly what these restrictions require, how courts treat them in practice, and what concrete steps to take to stay on the right side of them.

What the Law Requires

Colorado law puts four main restrictions on both parties once a dissolution or legal separation case is filed and served:

• Property. Neither party may transfer, hide, borrow against, or dispose of marital property without the other party's consent or a court order. There is a narrow exception for transactions in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life. If you make an "extraordinary expenditure" after the injunction is in effect, you must notify the other party first and account to the court for it.
• Peace. Neither party may molest or disturb the peace of the other party while the case is pending. This is separate from a formal protection order, but it is still an enforceable court order.
• Children. Neither party may remove the minor children from Colorado without the other party's consent or a court order.
• Insurance. Neither party may cancel, modify, terminate, or let lapse (even for nonpayment) any health, homeowner's, renter's, automobile, or life insurance policy covering a party or the children. The only exception is if you have written consent or a court order and you give at least 14 days' advance written notice.

In parenting and parentage cases, a similar automatic injunction applies — covering disturbing the other party's peace, removing the children from Colorado, and changing insurance that covers the children. In parentage and paternity-disclaimer cases, these orders run for 120 days from service unless the court changes that.

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These orders are self-executing: they bind you the instant the case is filed or you're served, with no separate hearing, and they stay in force until the final decree, dismissal, or a court order changing them.

Colorado law also requires the person filing to sign a written acknowledgment that they received, read, and understand the terms of the automatic injunction, and the full text of the injunction is printed right on the summons and petition so both parties can see it.

One more thing worth knowing: the law gives these orders teeth on the peace-disturbance side. If you show a peace officer the filed petition and summons along with proof of service, and the officer has cause to believe the no-molestation provision was violated, the officer is required to use every reasonable means to enforce it. An officer who acts in good faith enforcing the order has no civil or criminal liability.

What Courts Typically Do

In practice, courts treat compliance with these orders seriously, and the consequences for violating them are real. Colorado courts have added money back into the marital estate when a spouse moved assets improperly after the injunction took effect. In one case, a court credited a spouse with funds that existed before the other spouse cashed out stock after the injunction was in place — and rejected the argument that the sales were just "routine," because the prior sales had been inconsistent and weren't treated as monthly income. In another, a court properly counted $45,000 a spouse had withdrawn after the case began back into the marital estate, because he hadn't gotten a court order or consent and couldn't show the withdrawal was for ordinary business or necessities.

Courts also distinguish sharply between genuine emergencies and routine protection. Beyond the automatic injunction, extra restraining orders in divorce cases are reserved for actual emergencies where the grounds are clearly established — courts generally see an ordinary order preserving the status quo (which the automatic injunction already does) as enough to hold things in place pending a hearing.

The realistic takeaway: judges expect you to live within these restrictions, and if you spend or move money in a way you can't document and justify, you may find that value treated as if it were still part of the marital pot when property gets divided.

Step by Step: What to Do

1. Read the injunction text on your papers. The full terms are printed on the summons and petition. Read them the day the case is filed or the day you're served — you're bound immediately, not when you "get around to it."
2. Stop any action that touches the four restrictions. Don't sell, transfer, hide, or borrow against marital property. Don't cancel or change insurance. Don't take the children out of state. Don't do anything that could be seen as disturbing the other party's peace.
3. Keep paying what you already pay. If you had a prior obligation for mortgage or rent, utilities, insurance, transportation, medical care, or child care, keep paying it. Stopping those payments can itself be a violation.
4. Start a spending log immediately. From the moment the injunction is in effect, keep receipts, bank statements, and written records of significant transactions. You'll need these to account to the court for any extraordinary expenditures and to protect yourself if your compliance is ever questioned.
5. Get permission before doing anything that bumps up against a restriction. If you genuinely need to travel out of state with the children, change insurance coverage, or make a large transaction, get the other party's written consent (with 14 days' notice for insurance changes) or ask the court first. A verbal agreement between the two of you is not legally effective — any change to the automatic orders must go through a court filing.
6. Use the court to modify an order when you need to. Either party can ask the court to expand, modify, or revoke the injunction. Rather than hunting down and hand-filling the right motion, the guided wizard on this site will prepare and pre-fill the correct paperwork for your situation.
7. If your peace is being disturbed, use the enforcement tool. Keep a copy of the filed petition, summons, and your proof of service. If the other party violates the no-molestation provision, showing those documents to a peace officer triggers their duty to enforce the order.

What Research Shows Can Help

The items available for this guide focus on what the law requires and how courts apply it. They don't include social science research findings specific to automatic temporary injunctions, so there's nothing reliable to report here on that front. If you want research-informed guidance, it will more likely come from the articles on parenting and co-parenting topics than from the injunction rules themselves.

What to Do Today

• Pull out your summons and petition and read the automatic injunction section word for word — you're bound by it right now.
• Start a dated spending log and pull your most recent bank and credit card statements so you have a clean baseline from the date of filing or service.
• Make a list of every insurance policy covering you, the other party, or your children, and do not touch any of them without written consent and 14 days' notice.
• If you think you'll need to travel with the children, change insurance, or make a large transaction, start the guided wizard so the right request to the court is prepared for you — don't act unilaterally.
• If the other party is disturbing your peace, put copies of the filed petition, summons, and proof of service somewhere you can grab them quickly.

Related Issues to Be Aware Of

Financial preparation before filing. Because the injunction requires you to notify the other party of extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for them, good financial preparation and recordkeeping is your best protection — start documenting every significant transaction from day one, since failure to account for spending can be used against you.

Property division. The restrictions on moving assets exist to protect what will eventually be divided. Colorado divides marital property equitably, considering each spouse's contributions and economic circumstances, so improperly disposing of assets now can directly reduce your share — watch how the automatic injunction connects to how property gets divided at the end of the case.

Filing and court forms. The injunction is triggered by, and printed on, the filing papers themselves, and the person filing must sign an acknowledgment that they've read and understood it. If you're still at the filing stage, understand that filing is the exact moment the restrictions begin for you.

Digital assets and cryptocurrency. The "don't dispose of marital property" rule reaches well beyond bank accounts — things like stock options, restricted stock, and other less obvious holdings can be marital property too. If you hold digital assets or complex compensation, treat them as covered by the injunction and disclose them rather than moving or cashing them out.