"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice."

~Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Texas Court's may issue three basic types of emergency relief:  (1) temporary restraining order; (2) temporary injunction; and, (3) protective order.  While the court also has other inherent authority to order the clerk to issue other writs and processes may be needed (including writs of attachment and writs of habeas corpus), generally the majority of emergency orders issued by a court will fall under one of the 3 categories above.

WHAT IS A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER?

A Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) is often obtained upon the filing of a divorce. A TRO has a laundry list of things which the court may ordinarily order as a matter of course without notice to the other side upon the filing of a divorce, including restraints on the parties or their property.  A TRO can be granted without providing the other party with notice of the request.  A TRO can also be granted without the necessity of filing a bond. Restraints in a TRO may preclude some, or all, of the following conduct of the other party:   

(1) Communicating with you in person, by telephone, or in writing in vulgar, profane, obscene, or indecent language or in a coarse or offensive manner; 

(2) Threatening you in person, by telephone, or in writing to take unlawful action against any person; 

(3) Placing one or more telephone calls to you, anonymously, at any unreasonable hour, in an offensive and repetitious manner, or without a legitimate purpose of communication; 

(4) Causing bodily injury to you or to a child of either party; 

(5) Threatening you or a child of either party with imminent bodily injury; 

(6) Destroying, removing, concealing, encumbering, transferring, or otherwise harming or reducing the value of the property of yours; 

(7) Falsifying any writing or record relating to the property of yours; 

(8) Misrepresenting or refusing to disclose to you or to the Court, on proper request, the existence, amount, or location of any property of yours; 

(9) Damaging or destroying the tangible property of yours, including any document that represents or embodies anything of value; 

(10) Tampering with the tangible property of yours, including any document that represents or embodies anything of value, and causing pecuniary loss to you; 

(11) Selling, transferring, assigning, mortgaging, encumbering, or in any other manner alienating any of the property of yours, whether personalty or realty, except as specifically authorized by order of the Court; 

(12) Making withdrawals from any checking or savings account in any financial institution of yours for any purpose; 

(13) Entering any safe-deposit box in the name of or subject to the control of yours, whether individually or jointly with others; 

(14) Opening or diverting mail addressed to you; 

(15) Signing or endorsing your name on any negotiable instrument, check, or draft, such as tax refunds, insurance payments, and dividends, or attempting to negotiate any negotiable instrument payable to you without your personal signature; 

(16) Taking any action to terminate or limit credit or charge cards in your name; 

(17) Terminating or in any manner affecting the service of water, electricity, gas, telephone, cable television, or other contractual services, such as security, pest control, landscaping, or yard maintenance, at your residence or in any manner attempting to withdraw any deposits for service in connection with those services; 

(18) Excluding you from the use and enjoyment of your residence; 

(19) Entering, operating, or exercising control over any motor vehicle in your possession, custody or control; 

(20) Disturbing the peace of you or your child(ren); 

(21) Removing the child beyond a geographical area identified by the Court, acting directly or in concert with others; 

(22) Withdrawing the child from enrollment in the school or day-care facility where the child is presently enrolled; 

(23) Hiding or secreting the child from you or changing the child's current place of abode; 

(24) Making disparaging remarks regarding you or your family in the presence or within the hearing of the child; 

(25) Using illegal drugs or consuming alcohol within the 24 hours before or during the period of possession of or access to the child; 

(26) Permitting an unrelated adult with whom the other party has an intimate or dating relationship to remain in the same residence with the child between the hours of 8:00 P.M. and 8:00 A.M.; 

(27)  Incurring any indebtedness, other than legal expenses in connection with this suit, except as specifically authorized by this order; 

(28) Spending any sum of cash in the other party's possession or subject to the other party's control for any purpose, except as specifically authorized by this order; 

(29) Withdrawing or borrowing in any manner for any purpose from any retirement, profit-sharing, pension, death, or other employee benefit plan or employee savings plan or from any individual retirement account or Keogh account, except as specifically authorized by the Court's order; 

(30) Withdrawing or borrowing in any manner all or any part of the cash surrender value of life insurance policies on the life of you or the other party except as specifically authorized by the Court's order; 

(31) Changing or in any manner altering the beneficiary designation on any life insurance on the life of you or the other party or the parties' children; 

(32) Canceling, altering, failing to renew or pay premiums, or in any manner affecting the present level of coverage of any life, casualty, automobile, or health insurance policies insuring the parties' property or persons including the parties' children; 

(33) Discontinuing or reducing the withholding for federal income taxes on the other party's wages or salary while this case is pending; 

(34) Destroying, disposing of, or altering any financial records of the parties, including but not limited to records from financial institutions (including canceled checks and deposit slips), all records of credit purchases or cash advances, tax returns, and financial statements; and/or 

(35) Destroying, disposing of, or altering any e-mail or other electronic data relevant to the subject matters of this case, whether stored on a hard drive or on a diskette or other electronic storage device.

Once one party obtains a temporary restraining order in a matter, the other party may obtain a mutual temporary restraining order against the original party either by agreement of the parties or by an order of the court. The party who has been restrained may also on two (2) days notice seek to have the temporary restraining order lifted in part or in whole.  The restraints of a TRO remain in effect for up to fourteen (14) days at which time a hearing is held on the pending motion or application for a temporary relief. This time limit may be extended once by the written order of the court. However, if a hearing is not held within such time, the temporary restraining order ceases to be binding on the parties. If the hearing is held, the court then may consider the issues brought before it and enter temporary injunctions.

WHAT IS A TEMPORARY INJUNCTION?

A temporary injunction (a.k.a. temporary orders) are normally the result of the hearing  held at the end of the 14 day period of the temporary restraining order.  Temporary orders can and often do include orders requiring: (1) the filing of a sworn inventory and appraisement of all of the parties property by both parties; (2) the payment of temporary child support; (3) the payment of interim attorneys fees; (4) the payment of temporary spousal support [a.k.a. alimony]; (4) the appointment of conservatorship powers and obligations by and between the parties; (5) the award of the use of personal property including the residence and vehicles; (6) the operation of a family business; (7) the division of the obligations to pay interim and existing bills and other indebtedness; (8) visitation with and possession schedules of the children; (9) the production of documents, papers, records and other tangible things; (10) the extension or establishment of the protections afforded by a temporary restraining order; (11) etc.  Temporary Orders usually govern the parties rights and responsibilities while a family law case is pending (i.e. until the date of a final trial).

WHAT IS A PROTECTIVE ORDER?

A protective order is normally the true emergency order entered by a court. It provides for the immediate welfare and safety of the applicant from the threatened or actual family violence of another person. A protective order, unlike a temporary restraining order, may force the other spouse from the home without a hearing. The protective order is also generally considered a more serious order and is more apt to obtain a quick police response in the event it is disobeyed. In normal circumstances it is actually a felony to violate a protective order.

The protective order is issued upon a court's review of the application accompanied by an affidavit alleging on personal knowledge actual acts of or threatened acts of physical violence by a family member against another. A person who seeks the removal exclusion of the other spouse from the family residence based on claims of family violence must personally appear as well.

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Anthony Veader is an attorney, mediator and counselor servicing Denton, Dallas and Collin counties which cities include: Allen, Celina, Fairview, Farmersville, Frisco, Lavon, Lucas, McKinney, Melissa, Murphy, Plano, Princeton, Prosper, Richardson, Aubrey, Carrollton, Corinth, Denton, Flower Mound, Highland Village, Justin, Krum, Lake Dallas, Lewisville, Little Elm, Pilot Point, Ponder, Sanger, The Colony, Addison, Cedar Hill, Coppell, Dallas, DeSoto, Duncanville, Farmers Branch, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, Mesquite, Rowlett,  Seagoville, Wylie.  The Law Office of Anthony Veader, P.C. handles matters including, but not limited to divorce, modifications, child support, child custody, visitation, access, domestic abuse, military divorces, annulments, restraining orders, protective orders, paternity, Divorce Decree Enforcement and Divorce Decree Violations, Relocation and Travel Issues, Name Changes, Common Law Marriages, CPS Cases, AG Cases and IV-D Court Cases.

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