Judge in person detaining former wife? It's automatic (9)
I believe the answer is:
reflexive
'automatic' is the definition.
('reflexive' can be a synonym of 'automatic')
'judge in person detaining former wife?' is the wordplay.
'judge' becomes 'ref'.
'in person' becomes 'live' ('live' can be similar in meaning to 'in person').
'detaining' is an insertion indicator.
'former wife?' becomes 'ex'.
'live' enclosing 'ex' is 'lexive'.
'ref'+'lexive'='REFLEXIVE'
'it's' is the link.
(Other definitions for reflexive that I've seen before include "(Of an action) done without conscious thought" , "Of word, referring back to subject of verb" , "(Of an action) performed unconsciously" , "Kind of pronoun like myself, himself etc" .)