Enforcing your court order in South Fulton.
A court order should give a South Fulton family some certainty, and it is maddening when the other parent treats it as optional. When support goes unpaid or the parenting schedule is ignored, bringing the matter back to court for contempt is how you enforce it, and we handle that for you.
Daniels & Taylor serves South Fulton 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. 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 South Fulton 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 South Fulton 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 South Fulton can use contempt to enforce what the divorce ordered.
Common questions about contempt in South Fulton
Where is a contempt case filed?
A contempt action belongs in the court that entered your original order: if your order came from a particular county’s Superior Court, that is where the contempt is filed, even if you have since moved to another county. We confirm which court that is for you.
Does contempt cover both unpaid support and a violated parenting schedule?
Yes. One contempt action can address missed child support and denied custody or visitation at the same time.
What can a judge do if the other parent is found in contempt?
Order makeup parenting time, payment of the arrears, attorney’s fees, and in stubborn cases jail until they comply.
Bring the matter back to court and enforce your order. Call (770) 285-1673 for a free case evaluation.