> [!info] Prepared locally > Revised text and original picture are ready. WordPress save, rendered checks and publication remain to be verified. A stay order pauses specified proceedings, enforcement or another identified court action until a stated time, event or further order. Its scope depends on what is stayed. A pause in one part of a case does not necessarily stop every other part. ## In California Family Law The actual order should identify the affected action and any conditions or expiration. A stay does not, merely by its existence, vacate the underlying judgment or decide the merits. The question is what must pause and what may continue. Some stays arise by operation of law rather than a separately requested order. [[Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. § 916|Code of Civil Procedure section 916]] addresses the effect of an appeal on proceedings involving the judgment or matters affected by it, subject to stated exceptions. It also permits unaffected matters to proceed. Filing an appeal should therefore not be described as automatically stopping the entire family-law case. ## Enforcement and Custody Exceptions [[Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. § 917.1|Code of Civil Procedure section 917.1]] addresses enforcement of money judgments and undertakings, with its own exceptions. A party should not assume that an appeal alone prevents collection. [[Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. § 917.7|Code of Civil Procedure section 917.7]] provides that an appeal does not ordinarily stay provisions affecting child custody or visitation, while permitting specified court-ordered stays. It separately addresses provisions allowing removal of a child from the state and excludes certain interstate or international child-return orders from that automatic-stay treatment. Those distinctions matter; an ordinary custody provision and a relocation or return provision should not be treated as identical. ## Example A parent appeals a custody ruling and assumes the prior arrangement automatically resumes. The appeal alone does not establish that result. The parent must identify the applicable statute and any actual stay order, including precisely which provisions are paused and for how long. ![[Files/OtherFiles/Stay Order.jpg]]