Contempt in Custody Cases

In some cases it may be difficult to get your ex-spouse to comply with the court’s orders. I recommend that you try to work out small differences yourself. The bigger problems, however, need to be brought to my attention. For example, if your ex-spouse does not pay child support, refuses to give visitation as ordered, or violates an order, there are a number of steps we can take to try to force compliance. One possible step would be to ask the court to find your ex-spouse in contempt. Contempt findings can ultimately lead to jail time if the judge believes that your ex-spouse is intentionally refusing to comply with a lawful court order. Another possibility would be an income assignment order.

If your spouse is at least a month behind in child support and is employed, you may be able to get an order that will take the child support directly out of your ex-spouse’s pay and require the employer to pay it to the court clerk. (It will show up as a deduction on the employee’s paystub). The clerk will then pay this money over to you. Catching up on delinquent support gets more and more difficult the further behind the payor gets. Therefore, if you are not receiving child support that you should, you ought to take steps to enforce the support before it gets too far behind.