What is Contempt of Court, and Should You Be Worried?

One of the scariest family law documents to receive is one asking that the recipient be found in “contempt of court.” These documents are titled a variety of different ways (petition for contempt, motion for contempt, citation for contempt, motion for attachment of contempt, etc.), but they all carry the distinctive tone of being in real trouble.

Contempt of court occurs where a party is found to be willfully or intentionally disobeying a civil court order. These orders can include child support orders, custody orders (and their related parenting plans), final divorce orders (and their related settlement agreements, if applicable), temporary orders, and any other orders that might occur in a family law case.

Contempt of court is punishable by sanctions ranging from very mild to very severe. Sometimes, the disobedient party gets away with just a “judicial talking to,” meaning the judge drones on about what a lamentable person you are and that if you don’t immediately correct your conduct worse things will come. On the other end of the spectrum, the judge can send the contemptible contemptor to jail, either as a punishment or to stay in jail until he/she “purges him/herself of contempt” by doing some court-ordered act such paying children support arrearage or complying with other items in prior court orders.

If you’re served with a contempt petition, should you be concerned? The short answer is: Yes. How concerned? That depends on the conduct. If you’ve willfully failed to pay child support, you should be extremely concerned. If you’ve only forgotten to return your former spouse’s high school yearbooks, don’t worry too much.

Bottom line: Contempt of court is pretty serious business. Don’t go to court alone and think you can just explain it all away.

Best practice: Follow every line of any court order. If you need to change something, do it the legal way with a modification.