A law is no good unless there’s someone to make everyone follow it. That’s called enforcement. In family law, enforcement is accomplished with anything from charging interest on past due support obligations to jail. Listed below are some of the various types of enforcement methods available to the court.
Suspension Of Operating Privileges
Assignment Of Income
Account Transfers
Debt Collections Methods
Contempt of Court
The court may permit you to pay into the system voluntarily, rather than have your employer withhold, but if you miss a payment, the withholding feature will quickly go into place.
Account Transfers
If income assignment isn’t working for whatever reason, the court can order you to either identify (i.e., reveal to the court) or create a deposit account from which funds can be periodically withdrawn to meet support obligations. You have to put enough money in the account to cover the transfers, of course.
Debt Collections Methods
The court’s remedies include, but are not limited to, other standard debt collection practices, including entering a civil judgment against you for past due amounts, attachment to your property, garnishment, and execution (selling your stuff).
Contempt of Court
The big stick the court has is a contempt proceeding. This comes about because the court has ordered you to do something (pay) and you have not done it. Not doing what a court orders is contempt of court. A contempt proceeding begins when the court issues, or the other party requests, an “order to show cause,” which is a court’s demand for you to explain why you have not done whatever it is the court told you to do and why the court should not hold you in contempt.
Contempt, legally, means intentional:
If the court finds you in contempt, it can issue two types of sanctions – punitive sanctions and remedial sanctions. Punitive Sanctions are designed to punish you for past violations to teach you to respect the court’s authority. Remedial Sanctions are designed to get you to stop ongoing violations. Typically, remedial sanctions are the order of the day.
Remedial Sanctions can include:
Punitive Sanctions allow the court to put you in jail for up to a year and fine you up to $5000 for each separate act of contempt.
A contempt order has to be issued by a judge. If the Family Court Commissioner wants to hold you in contempt, he/she has to refer it to a judge.