There may come a time during your divorce action that you are compelled to seek immediate relief from the Court. As an example, you sold the marital home and are concerned that your spouse will commandeer the proceeds of the sale after closing and do as he pleases with the money. Or your spouse is in the process of cleaning out the marital joint account.

In these types of situations, the Court must intervene by issuing a court order on the spot. How can this be accomplished? Your experience thus far with the divorce process is that things happen very slowly because the Court is inundated with cases and cannot give your case the attention it requires.

Your remedy is to ask your attorney to file an Order to Show Cause which contains temporary restraining orders, or injunctive relief. The terms are interchangeable. An order to show cause is no different than filing a motion, except you may address certain issues with the Court as soon as the order to show cause is filed. On the other hand, you do not have the option of seeking immediate relief from the court when you file a motion, you must wait until the motion is fully briefed and decided. So you file the order to show cause and ask for immediate relief, and then, just like a motion, you wait for the court to rule on the relief requested.

A temporary restraining order is a paragraph contained in the order to show cause that directs your spouse to refrain from pilfering the proceeds of the sale or restrains your spouse from secreting funds out of your marital joint bank account. So if the Judge signs the Order to Show Cause and does not cross out the paragraph containing the language restraining your spouse from doing something, the language is deemed a court order and disobeying the court order is contempt of court, punishable by up to six months in prison.

An example of a temporary restraining order contained in an order to show cause is as follows:

As the above illustrates, you can seek direction from the Court on any issue as soon as you file the Order to Show Cause. Please note that prior to filing an order to show cause seeking injunctive relief in the Supreme or County Court, you must give opposing counsel 24 hours advance notice of your intention to file an order to show cause seeking injunctive relief. This is accomplished by sending a letter to opposing counsel stating the following: