Contempt and order enforcement for Dallas families.
Dallas has filled with newcomers chasing affordable Paulding County homes, and many are caught off guard when an ex stops following the order. We help you enforce it through a contempt action.
Daniels & Taylor serves Dallas families from our office in Lawrenceville.
What most people pay for a case evaluation to learn
Contempt is how you enforce an order that already exists, not how you change it. If the other person is ignoring your custody, support, or divorce order, you ask the court to enforce it; to change the order you file a separate modification (O.C.G.A. 19-9-23(b)).
The violation has to be willful. An honest inability to pay is a defense to a support contempt; the question is whether the other person could comply and chose not to
(O.C.G.A. 19-6-28).
How a Georgia contempt case works
Contempt is how you enforce an existing order when the other person refuses to follow it. The court can compel compliance, and for a willful refusal it can order jail until the person complies, a purgeable and coercive remedy, so no one can promise that the other side will be jailed (O.C.G.A. 19-6-28).
Contempt is filed in the same court that entered the order you are enforcing, the court that issued your order, not necessarily where either of you lives now (O.C.G.A. 19-9-23(b)). If your order came from the Superior Court of Gwinnett
County, that is where your contempt case belongs; if it came from another county, that is where it belongs.
If circumstances have genuinely changed, the proper step in Georgia is generally a modification, not contempt, because contempt enforces an existing order rather than changing it (O.C.G.A. 19-9-23(b), 19-9-3), so a parent in Dallas whose situation has changed typically files for modification.
A contempt action in Georgia enforces an existing custody order rather than creating new terms (O.C.G.A. 19-9-23(b)), so a parent in Dallas uses contempt to hold the other parent to the current custody arrangement.
Contempt also enforces the terms of a Georgia divorce decree, such as support, property, and parenting obligations (O.C.G.A. 19-6-28), so a party in Dallas can use contempt to enforce what the divorce ordered.
Common questions about contempt in Dallas
Where is a Dallas contempt case decided?
Right here in the Superior Court of Paulding County, in Dallas.
How do I enforce unpaid child support?
We file for contempt and pursue the back support you’re owed.
Can ignored visitation be enforced?
Yes, denying court-ordered time can be contempt.
Let’s make your order count. Call (770) 285-1673 for a free case evaluation.
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