Contempt and enforcement help for Walnut Grove families.
In rural Walton County, a Walnut Grove parent who’s owed support or denied time with their kids deserves to have the court’s order actually mean something. We help you enforce it through a contempt action.
Daniels & Taylor serves Walnut Grove 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 Walnut Grove 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 Walnut Grove 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 Walnut Grove can use contempt to enforce what the divorce ordered.
Common questions about contempt in Walnut Grove
Where is a Walnut Grove contempt case filed?
In the Superior Court of Walton County, in the county seat of Monroe, generally the court that issued the order.
How far back can unpaid support be enforced?
We pursue the arrears you’re owed; bring what records you have and we’ll review them.
What can the court do about contempt?
It can order compliance, set up repayment, and in serious cases impose penalties.
Let’s make your order enforceable again. Call (770) 285-1673 for a free case evaluation.
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