Once a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage is filed, the parties will be served with the Petition, Summons and an Automatic Temporary Injunction (ATI). First thing you must do is make sure your get counsel so that you file the proper Response with the Court within 20 days of being served. The next thing you must do is obey the ATI. So what does this pesky piece of legal mumbo jumbo do, and why you should not violate it? That is what I hope to explain in this blog post.
Why is the Automatic Temporary Injunction Important?:
The Automatic Temporary Injunction or ATI, Title 43 §110, is meant to put a stop to you or your spouse from depleting the bank account, running up a credit card, selling off the cars, canceling the insurance, life insurance policies, shutting off the utilities, taking out a loan, and many other dastardly deeds to enrage the other party. Now unless you’re maniacal, this should be a good thing and grant you some sort of relief, knowing that your assets are safe until the final decree is ordered. However, if you are the one getting ready to file the Petition, you may want to take care of certain financial affairs, like opening a new checking account and transferring half of the marital funds into, stopping the automatic withdrawals from coming out of the marital account and most importantly, make sure you paycheck is auto-deposited into the new account.
The ATI also serves as more than just a financial safeguard. It also is meant to protect the children from the marriage. These injunctions put into place a legally binding document that prevents you or your spouse from hiding or secreting away the child(ren). It also serves to prevent molesting or disturbing the peace of both you and your children. This covers harassing phone calls, coming to your work or the children’s school and definitely coming to and harassing you at your home. Although the other party may choose to violate the injunction, it usually carries heavy penalties when you go to hearing, and it can serve as a basis for an emergency action. Be sure and let your attorney know if the other party has violated the ATI, so that the Judge can handle the problems at the next court hearing.
One thing that most people do not think of when they move out of the house as a result of a pending divorce is their mail. Now this may not be as important as their children or financials, but mail is personal and should not be opened by your spouse, just because they are still living in the marital home. The ATI is designed to carry a consequence if the opposing party is opening and reading your personal mail; although this may be hard to prove. If you are the person who is moving out of the house, consider informing any persons who may be sending mail to you personally of your new address, especially your attorney or family member/friend. You may want to talk to your post office employee to determine the best way to transfer your mail without diverting the entire house. We suggest getting a post office box where only you have the key, especially if you are staying at family or a friend’s house for a few weeks while you find a new place.
The last thing that is important about an ATI is the protection it grants to your important documents, especially those that are going to be important to your case in the discovery process, and will most likely be used to determine child support, alimony, or can help when you and your spouse jointly own a business. The ATI prohibits the other party from destroying any documents, both electronic and real. As mentioned in Part 1, these documents you may want to copy before you leave the house, but in case you leave in a hurry or at an inappropriate time (like an argument) and do not want to belabor the issue by trying to procure a copy of the tax returns you are protected.
Needless to say, the Automatic Temporary Injunction is extremely crucial to your divorce and can lead to a smoother and more amicable divorce. So why is it important not to violate the ATI?
Well simply put, you don’t want to hack off the Judge before you even get to the first Court hearing. The ATI is law, it is an Order, and if you violate it you will be held in contempt of that order. If you do not understand the Automatic Temporary Injunction you need to contact an attorney immediately upon service. This document is serious and this blog should not serve as a substitute to calling an attorney, setting up a consult, and getting legal expertise and clarification. A violation of an ATI can and has been known to result in fines and/or imprisonment. This is not the way to start off a divorce, and can result in dragging out your divorce and costing you a lot of extra money and heartache.
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