California ATROs
The restraining orders nobody signs — they come with the summons.
File a California dissolution and four restraining orders take effect automatically — against YOU at filing, against your spouse at service. Children stay in state, property stays put, insurance stays intact, nonprobate transfers freeze. Most people learn this after they've violated one; this page exists so you learn it before.
Children stay in state; no new passports
Both parties are restrained from removing the minor children from California, or applying for a new or replacement passport for them, without the other party's prior written consent or a court order (§ 2040(a)(1)).
No transferring or encumbering property
Both parties are restrained from transferring, encumbering, concealing, or disposing of ANY property — community, quasi-community, or separate — except in the usual course of business or for necessities of life; extraordinary expenditures require five business days' advance notice to the other party and an accounting to the court (§ 2040(a)(2)(A)). Paying reasonable attorney's fees to retain counsel is expressly permitted, with an accounting (§ 2040(a)(2)(B)).
Insurance stays intact
Both parties are restrained from cashing, borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing beneficiaries of life, health, automobile, or disability coverage held for the parties or their children (§ 2040(a)(3)).
No changing nonprobate transfers
Both parties are restrained from creating or modifying nonprobate transfers (revocable trusts, pay-on-death accounts, TOD registrations and the like) affecting property disposition without written consent or a court order (§ 2040(a)(4)).
Expressly NOT restrained — § 2040(b)
- · Creating, modifying, or revoking a WILL (§ 2040(b)(1))
- · Revoking a nonprobate transfer (including a revocable trust) per the instrument, with notice filed and served BEFORE the change takes effect (§ 2040(b)(2))
- · Eliminating a right of survivorship, with the same advance notice (§ 2040(b)(3))
- · Creating an unfunded revocable or irrevocable trust (§ 2040(b)(4))
- · Filing a Probate Code disclaimer (§ 2040(b)(5))
When they bind whom — § 233
The ATROs take effect against the petitioner on filing and issuance of the summons, and against the respondent on personal service (or waiver and acceptance), and remain in effect until final judgment, dismissal, or further order (§ 233(a)); they are enforceable anywhere in the state.
The joint-title warning
The summons warns: jointly held property is presumed community for division, but if a party dies BEFORE it is divided, how title reads in the deed controls — not the community-property presumption (§ 2040(c)).
Version honesty: The current § 2040 text sunsets January 1, 2027, when its already-enacted replacement (Stats. 2025, Ch. 48) takes over — the corpus carries both versions, and this organizer re-verifies against the live text.
Authority locked — retrieved from the hash-pinned corpus
Legal information, not legal advice. The summons itself states the orders — read the FL-110 you were served or filed; on any close question about a specific transaction, the honest move is asking a California attorney before acting, not after.