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Contempt of Court – In Family Matters

Filing a Motion for Contempt and Enforcement in Family Court.

When parties finalize a matter in family court, usually a divorce or a paternity case, the Judge is no longer involved, and it is up to the parties and their attorneys to ensure the Final Judgement (the Order of the court that finalizes the case) is obeyed by all parties. What happens if someone does not follow the Order?   Usually the action taken (also called a “remedy”) by the aggrieved party is to file a Motion for Contempt and Enforcement.   This is a formal request to the court to request the judge to find the other  party in  contempt and to  enforce the  Order. 

The Final Judgment is almost assuredly not the end of your divorce, custody, or paternity case. If a party is refusing to follow the court’s Order the court has several remedies available to encourage the party to comply with the Order such as:

            Examples of Contempt: For example, one party may be ordered to  pay alimony or monthly child support but he/she is not doing  so or is behind in payments.  Another example is your child’s other parent is refusing to comply with the parenting plan and will not return the child on the proper day or at the designated time.    And pandemics, like COVID, what if you and the child’s other parent can’t agree with putting the child back into a brick & mortar school or homeschooling when it is clear the court has ordered the child attend Gemini Elementary School. 

The legal term “Contempt” means a party’s refusal to obey a judge’s order, mandate, or decree. This may be an obvious action (when child support is not being paid) or it can be a milder act or lack of acting (such as when one parent is 15 minutes late each week for exchange of children.) Either way the party not complying with the court order may be found in contempt of court.

LEGAL TIP:   What Is CONTEMPT OF COURT?

Tips From Attorney Bonnie Rhoden

This is most easily described using the definition of Contempt of Court which is a circumstance, in Brevard County, Florida, family court, when a person has not complied (obeyed) a court’s Order.  To be held in contempt by the court there must exist the following two things: 

  1.   The person who is ordered to comply with the Order must possess the ability to comply;
  2.   And, that person must have willfully refused to comply with the court’s Order.

The court can choose from a wide range of consequences upon finding a person in contempt of court such as jail time in the county jail (commonly used for perpetual no or slow paying parents), sanctions to pay the motioning party’s attorney fees (typically no less than $1500 per motion), make up timesharing, punitive fines, garnishment of wages. temporary change in timesharing, and more.

If you are in a situation wondering if your court Order is being obeyed, if your former spouse is complying properly with the court’s Order, or if your child’s other parent is disobeying your Parenting Plan, call Rhoden Law Group.  Our experiences attorneys have well over 40 years combined experience in litigation and family law.  You can contact us by phone or text at 321-549-3162 or email using the online contact form.