Contempt and order enforcement for McDonough families.
Around McDonough’s historic courthouse square, many newer Henry County families are blindsided when an ex simply stops honoring the order. We put the court’s authority back behind it through a contempt action.
Daniels & Taylor serves McDonough families from our office in Lawrenceville.
What most people pay for a consultation 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 McDonough 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 McDonough 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 McDonough can use contempt to enforce what the divorce ordered.
Common questions about contempt in McDonough
Where is a McDonough contempt case decided?
Right here in the Superior Court of Henry County, in McDonough.
My ex won’t pay what was ordered, what now?
We file for contempt and pursue the back support.
Can ignored visitation be enforced?
Yes, withholding court-ordered time can be contempt.
Let’s get your order respected. Call (770) 285-1673 for a free case evaluation.
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