Contempt of Court

If you have watched any legal drama, you have heard of the term “Contempt of Court”.  Usually it is in the context of our hero lawyer standing up for his client by disrespecting the judge. The Judge will yell “you’re in contempt!” and have the court officer drag our hero off to jail.  One of the definitions of Contempt of Court is, in fact, “being rude, disrespectful to the judge or other attorneys or causing a disturbance in the courtroom, particularly after being warned by the judge”.

There is another definition of Contempt of Court that is less known.  “Willful failure to obey an order of the court.”  This can be in the form of failure to pay alimony, also known as spousal support, or child support.  A court has the ability to punish a ruling of contempt with fines or even jail time.

There are several areas covered by a divorce agreement that are enforceable with a contempt of court motion.  These include:

• Support Orders – Violation of an order to pay spousal or child support
• Child Custody & Visitation Orders – Violating the terms of the custody and visitation orders such as moving with a child outside the guidelines of the divorce agreement or not allowing court ordered visitation
• Attorney Fee Orders – Under California Law, under some circumstances one party may be ordered to pay the attorney fees for the other party, commonly referred to as “need-based” fees.
• Property Division Orders – failure to comply with a court ordered in-kind division of community property assets
• Restraining Orders and Family Court Protective Orders – violation of a valid restraining order
• Failure to Comply with discovery orders under the Civil Discovery Act
• Intentional violation of a Rule of Court

The following types of order can NOT be enforced by a contempt of court motion:

• Equalization payments as part of a property division
• Marital Debt Liability Orders – failure to pay off marital debt as ordered by the court
• Sanction orders

Contempt of Court is a serious charge that is not handled lightly by the courts.  There is a procedure in which a person may be cited for Contempt.  There must be a written court order in place.  The person charged with contempt (Citee) must be aware of the order, and there has to be legal proof that the order was willfully violated.

Once an accusation of Contempt has been filed, the Citee has due process rights that must be followed, including notice of the charged and the opportunity to heard. A contempt of court motion is basically between the Court and the cited party since the Court is the aggrieved party.  However, in most cases, the party filing the contempt motion normally must present the evidence and conduct the hearing.  The burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt for all components of the contempt charges and falls on the person bringing the charge to meet that burden.  Once the hearing or trial starts, the rules of double jeopardy apply.  This means if someone is tried and found not guilty, they cannot be accused or tried for the same offense.

As you can see, Contempt of Court is a wide-ranging charge and can be extremely complex to bring to court and try.
Tracy Duell-Cazes is a Certified Family Law Specialist and work with Contempt of Court cases as a frequent part of her practice.  Tracy has nearly 30 years’ experience in the area of Family Law and working with clients to both prosecute and defend against Contempt of Court accusations.

Contact Tracy at TDC Family Law to discuss your situation.