Temporary Orders

Getting a divorce can sometimes take up to a year or more. At the end, you will have a final divorce order that defines what happens when the divorce is done.

You may need to ask for something right away, rather than waiting until your divorce is final. For example, you may need an immediate decision about:

• Where your children will live.
• Financial support from your spouse.
• Who stays in your home or pays bills.

You can ask the Court for an immediate decision by requesting temporary orders. Requesting temporary orders is optional. 

How to ask for temporary orders

The forms you need to fill out to ask for temporary orders are part of this site's Divorce Form Assistants. See Filing for Divorce with Children or Filing for Divorce without Children for those forms. 

If you think your spouse might disagree with your temporary orders, it can be very helpful to get a lawyer.

After your forms are filed, your spouse will get up to 14 days to either agree or disagree with your temporary orders. If your spouse doesn't respond in that time, the Court may issue any orders that it approves without a hearing. If your spouse requests different temporary orders, the Court will usually decide between them based on the information that you both submitted in your forms.

It's important that all your filing information, including the financial forms, is complete and accurate. It may be used to make decisions on your temporary orders.

In some cases, the Court will schedule a hearing to make a decision on what the temporary orders should be. This hearing is usually held about 4 to 6 weeks after you file the paperwork. You must attend the hearing to finalize the temporary orders.

The temporary orders are in place for as long as it takes to complete the divorce process. When you are officially divorced, the Judge’s final orders will take the place of the temporary orders.