From Grant-Funded Study to Enduring Practice: How Agencies in the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration Continued Their Work After Research Ended
The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) grant tested the application of procedural justice principles to child support enforcement, specifically to situations where a parent was about to be referred for a contempt action. This paper discusses the decisions grantees made about continuing to use the principles after the end of the grant period. All…
Read MoreWhite v. White (Mississippi 2023)
A parent can’t contract away a child’s right to support. The mother filed to find the father in contempt for failure to pay support. The father had stopped paying support when the parents youngest child turned 18. The father argued that a provision in the divorce decree ended support when the youngest child turned 18 or emancipated. The chancery court gave the father credit for some expenses he had paid on behalf of the child but entered a judgment against father for support up to the child’s 21st birthday. The father appealed.
Read MoreBarham v. Barham (North Carolina 2022)
A parent can’t unilaterally modify a child support order. The original divorce decree ordered the father to pay support for the parties’ eight children. Support was modified several times. After entry of the latest modification, the father began paying one cent per pay period toward monthly support. He filed for credit for overpaying support, arguing he had made two additional child support payments each year for the years spanning 2013 -2019. The mother filed a motion for contempt for nonpayment. The trial court found the father in contempt.
Read MoreBossian v. Bossian (North Carolina 2022)
Parents can’t unilaterally modify child support orders. A parent is required to comply with the order even if it contains clerical errors. The father was found in contempt for failure to pay support. The final order included a purge payment and date for compliance. The mother filed a motion to correct clerical errors in the contempt order, and father filed a motion to for relief from the contempt order. The trial court granted the mother’s motion and denied the father’s motion. The trial court entered an arrest order but lowered the purge payment so the father could be quickly released.
Read MoreParental Resp Conc ACB (Colorado 2022)
Due Process requires appointment of counsel for indigent parents when a governmental agency initiates a contempt proceeding and jail is a possible remedy. The child support office filed a contempt proceeding against the father. The petition sought a jail term for the father, which would be suspended based on payment of child support. Throughout the proceeding, the father notified the court he had no ability to pay support and requested appointed counsel. The trial court denied his request and found him in contempt. The father appealed.
Read MoreAbney v. Pace (Tennessee 2021)
If a parent provides health insurance for a child on top of the court-ordered insurance, the cost must be a reasonable for the parent to receive credit for the premium. In the parent’s divorce decree, the father was ordered to pay support and provide health insurance. The father filed to modify support. The mother answered claiming the father had not provided her with proof of the insurance and she counterclaimed for contempt for failure to pay support.
Read MoreStephens v. Stephens (Mississippi 2021)
To modify a child support order, there must be a substantial and material change not anticipated at the time of the original order. To contest a contempt finding, the parent must show evidence of the inability to pay. The parents in this case divorced and the final decree reflected their agreement as to child support and uncovered medical expenses. The mother subsequently filed numerous petitions for contempt. This appeal consolidates the father’s appeal of the two latest orders.
Read MoreGarrison v. Courtney (Mississippi 2020)
Service in a contempt proceeding must provide the parent with due process and cannot be waived. The failure to pay support as ordered is prima facie evidence of contempt. The parents filed for divorce. The chancery court entered a temporary order for custody and child support. Mid-proceeding, the mother filed a contempt motion for father’s failure to pay support. The chancery court heard this motion in conjunction with the already scheduled divorce trial. In the final order, the chancery court found the father in contempt. The father appealed several provisions of the final order, including the contempt finding.
Read MoreEvans v. Evans (Nebraska 2021)
A parent must willfully fail to pay support in order to be found in civil contempt. The County Attorney brought a contempt action against the father for failure to pay support. The district court heard evidence of the father’s assets, including a home and his business. The father argued he was injured and couldn’t work. The district court found the father in contempt for failure to pay support, set a purge payment schedule, and ordered him incarcerated if he didn’t comply with the payment schedule. The father appealed.
Read MoreBilderback-Vess v. Vess (Nebraska 2020)
A finding of contempt in a child support case requires willful disobedience, which is a factual determination. It must be impossible for a parent to pay support. The district court found the father in contempt for failure to child support and alimony. The father’s business failed, and he stopped making support payments. A portion of…
Read MoreIn re Lask (Kansas 2020)
The terms of the order will control what is considered an uninsured medical expense. These parents were operating under the terms of a modified divorce decree which divided uninsured medical expenses proportionately between them. The father, who earned significantly more, paid the bigger share. A child incurred significant bills due to stays in treatment. The…
Read MoreToussaint v. King (North Carolina 2020)
In a civil contempt hearing, the trial court must find that the parent willfully failed to comply with the support order and has the present ability to pay any purge condition. The parents in this case had a long history of litigation over child support. In this appeal, the father appealed an order finding him…
Read MorePrice v. Biggs (North Carolina 2020)
In a civil contempt proceeding, the burden is on the moving party to prove contempt. The trial court must address each contempt element in the order. The mother filed a motion to modify child support. At the first hearing, the mother presented her evidence. At the close of her case, the trial court didn’t hear…
Read MoreMorris v. Powell (North Carolina 2020)
Child support does not end until a child is legally emancipated. A seventeen-year-old child moved out of his mother’s home, and the father stopped paying support. The mother filed a petition for contempt and for a judgment on the arrears. The father filed to terminate support as of the date the child moved out, arguing…
Read MoreUnger v. Unger (North Carolina 2019)
Criminal contempt for child support is appropriate when the contempt addresses past violations of a child support order. The inclusion of a purge provision doesn’t change the contempt to civil. The father failed to make child support payments, and in 2012, the mother filed for contempt. The parents reached an agreement, which was captured in…
Read MoreState of Tennessee ex rel. Haynes v. Daugherty
In a contempt proceeding, a court may not impose a cash-only bond. This violates the parent’s constitutional right to pretrial release, equal protection, and due process. In this contempt case, contempt was filed against the father for failure to pay child support, and the trial court set a cash-only bond. The court set bond as…
Read MoreIn re LaForest (Kansas 2019)
An award of attorney fees cannot be offset against child support. A mother and father filed for divorce. The divorce dragged on, and eventually, the mother obtained a default divorce. The father filed to set aside the default order and asked for the attorney fees incurred to prepare the motion. The district court awarded him…
Read MoreHerrin v. Perkins (Mississippi 2019)
A parent should object to the sufficiency of a contempt pleading at trial. The father and mother agreed to visitation and amounts for current and back child support for their child and a judgment for the mother’s attorney fees. A year later, the mother filed a contempt petition. The petition included the amounts due for…
Read MoreNeely v. Neely (Tennessee 2019)
A contempt finding has four elements, one of which is a finding that the parent willfully didn’t pay the child support order. A contempt order must specifically address each element. After a series of motions, the chancery court entered an order finding the father in contempt for failure to pay support. The father appealed, arguing…
Read MoreColumbus County DSS ex rel. Moore v. Norton (North Carolina 2019)
A court should consider a parent’s income and assets to decide if the parent has the present ability to pay child support. The father appealed the court’s order finding him in contempt for failure to pay support. The trial court found evidence that he had the ability to pay support. He had income, he recently…
Read MoreWilkinson v. Wilkinson (Mississippi 2019)
A prima facie case for contempt in a child support case is made once a parent entitled to support shows the other parent has not paid. Then, the burden of proof shifts to the paying parent to defend the nonpayment. The parents divorced, and support was set in the decree. They reconciled for a period…
Read MoreJones v. Jones (Mississippi 2019)
A parent cannot be found in contempt for failure to pay support and found to have overpaid child support at the same time. The parties divorced in 2006, and while a wage withholding was entered, it was never issued. The father paid support directly to the mother, twice a month. In 2009, a modified wage…
Read MoreState of Tennessee ex rel. Moore v. Oden (Tennessee 2019)
If a judgment is missing from a record, it can be added later nunc pro tunc as long as the evidence supports that it was properly announced and not entered due to a clerical error. The parents in this case were never married and had one child. An initial support order was set in February…
Read MoreState of Tennessee ex rel. Groesse v. Sumner (Tennessee 2019)
For a contempt finding in a child support case, the parent must willfully not pay the support despite having the ability to pay. The father appealed a finding of contempt against him. The grounds on appeal included: whether the court applied the proper evidentiary standard, the appropriateness of a de novo rehearing, whether the presentation…
Read MoreServatius v. Ryals (North Carolina 2018)
Evidence must support a contempt finding, and the order must then contain the specific findings. The mother filed a motion for order to show cause, alleging that the father had failed to pay support. The court issued the order and ordered the father to appear. After hearing, the trial court declined to hold father in…
Read MoreCounty of Durham v. Burnette (North Carolina 2018)
Evidence of a parent’s willful refusal to pay a child support order and ability to pay purge conditions must support a contempt order. The father had two child support orders, and the County of Durham initiated contempt proceedings on both orders. The court found him in contempt for failure to pay on both orders and…
Read MoreBurgess v. Williamson (Mississippi 2018)
A parent cannot challenge the court’s jurisdiction over an initial order in subsequent proceedings. The father, the custodial parent, filed a motion to hold mother in contempt for failure to pay support. The mother filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The Chancery Court denied the motion and entered an order finding mother…
Read MoreKaplan v. Kaplan (North Carolina 2018)
The burden of proof in a child support contempt hearing shifts to the non-paying parent once a court enters an order to appear and show cause. The father appealed a contempt order. He argued he didn’t have the ability to pay the support or the purge condition. The appellate court affirmed the order and found…
Read MoreMcCullough v. McCullough (Nebraska 2018)
A parent must make child support payments even if a modification is pending. The father appealed a district court order finding him in contempt for failure to pay child support. He argued that he had filed to modify the support order and that the new order might affect the amount of support owed. The Supreme…
Read MoreMcKinney v. Hamp (Mississippi 2018)
A supersedeas bond, authorized by Mississippi Rule of Appellate Procedure 8(a), will not stay enforcement of an order for prospective, monthly child support pending appeal. A signing bonus for a parent-athlete is part of the parent’s gross income for child support purposes. A court has the discretion to modify an order back to the date…
Read MoreCounty of Durham v. Hodges (North Carolina 2017)
Evidence of a parent’s ability to pay must support a contempt order. The father in this case appealed a contempt order arguing that the evidence showed he had no ability to pay support. The contempt order was a pre-printed form that didn’t contain any findings of fact. The appellate court found the order lacked the…
Read MoreIn the Matter of the Paternity of S.M.J. (Kansas 2017)
In an indirect contempt proceeding, the individual must be physically present. If necessary, the Court can issue a bench warrant to compel attendance. The father in this case appealed a contempt finding that resulted from a hearing he did not attend, even though he had been properly served. The language of the indirect contempt statute…
Read MoreState on behalf of Lockwood v. Laue (Nebraska 2017)
In a contempt proceeding for failure to pay child support, a parent can rebut a presumptive finding with evidence showing the failure to pay was not willful. In a district court exception hearing, the court has the discretion to hear additional evidence. In this case, the state of Nebraska took exception to a referee’s dismissal…
Read MoreThompson v. Gerlach (North Carolina 2017)
In order to find a parent in contempt for failure to pay support, the court must find evidence of their ability to pay and willful failure to do so. Also, the order must contain specific purge conditions and date. In this case, the trial court found the father in contempt for failure to pay support…
Read MoreVincent v. Rickman (Mississippi 2017)
If a parent willfully fails to follow the terms of a child support order, the court can find the parent in contempt. Contempt is appropriate if the order is final and the terms are clear. The appellate court upheld the contempt ruling against the father, finding that he failed to comply with the unambiguous terms of…
Read MoreState of Tennessee ex rel. Bass v. Gonzalez-Perez (Tennessee 2017)
Longshore and Harbor Workers’ benefits are exempt from income withholding; however, the receipt of these benefits does not excuse a parent from paying child support. A parent who fails to pay can be found in contempt. In this case, the father suffered a work-related injury and qualified for Longshoreman’s benefits. After the accident, his support…
Read MoreHouse v. House (Nebraska 2017)
A finding of contempt for failure to pay child support is a rebuttable presumption. The burden of proof shifts to the parent to provide evidence that the failure to pay was not willful. In this case, the father argued he was indigent and could not pay support. The Court found that he offered no other…
Read MoreBrown v. Brown (Tennessee 2016)
In order to find a parent in criminal contempt of court for failure to pay child support, a petitioner must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the parent had the ability to pay the support when it was due and that the failure to pay support was willful. In this case, the Court found that…
Read MoreState v. Waldo (Tennessee 2016)
A parent must have the present ability to pay child support before he or she can be found in civil contempt for non-payment. The future ability to pay is not enough. The contempt order in this case also sentenced the parent to jail but suspended the sentence as long as the parent made a minimum…
Read MoreStallings v. Allen (Mississippi 2016)
A parent can be found in civil contempt of court for a failure to provide dental insurance and to pay a portion of uncovered medical expenses as ordered.
Read MoreSmeal Fire Apparatus Co v. Kreikemeier (Nebraska 2010)
Civil contempt must be proved by clear and convincing evidence unless statutory procedures impose a different standard.
Read MoreBreen v. Black (Wyoming 2015)
A custodial parent must diligently pursue a claim for reimbursement of medical expenses or they can be barred by res judicata. A noncustodial parent can be found in civil contempt for failure to contribute to medical expenses if evidence supports the finding.
Read MorePrice v. Snowden (Mississippi 2015)
The Court of Appeals reversed Chancery Court decision finding father was not in contempt of court.
Read MoreDeckard v. Deckard (Mississippi 2015)
Court of Appeals upheld lower court finding of contempt against father for failure to pay child support appropriate, that father was not entitled to a retroactive modification of the support amount, and that father had no proof of any extra judicial agreement to lower the support amount.
Read MoreBullock v. Bullock (Wyoming 2014)
A civil contempt order must be supported by clear and convincing evidence. Clear and convincing evidence is “evidence that would persuade a finder of fact that the truth of the contention is highly probable.” The elements of civil contempt are: “1) an effective court order that required certain conduct by the alleged contemnor; 2) the…
Read MoreRose v. Rose (Federal, US Supreme Court, 1987)
A state court has jurisdiction to hold a disabled veteran in contempt for failing to pay child support, even if the veteran’s only means of satisfying his obligation is to use veteran’s benefits received as compensation for a service connected disability.
Read MoreHicks v. Feiock (US 1988)
If both civil and criminal relief is imposed in the same action, then the criminal feature of the order is dominant and fixes its character a criminal for purposes of review and burdens of proof.
Read MoreSwain v. The State of Wyoming (Wyoming 2009)
A civil contempt is remedial and the penalty serves to enforce compliance with a court order.
Read MoreTurner v. Rogers (Federal, US Supreme Court, 2011)
The state does not necessarily need to provide counsel to an unrepresented non-custodial parent if the state has procedural safeguards in place. Those safeguards include (1) notice to the defendant that his ability to pay is a critical issue in the contempt proceeding; (2) the use of a form or the equivalent to elicit relevant…
Read MoreIn re Adoption of RMS (Wyoming 2011)
The district court did not abuse its discretion by concluding there was clear and convincing evidence that mother willfully failed to support her child.
Read MoreIn re Adoption of AMP (Wyoming 2010)
A district court has the authority to determine the credibility of witnesses and willfulness not to pay support based on the specific facts of each case.
Read MoreWalker v. Walker (Wyoming 2013)
District courts have both inherent and statutory authority to enforce their orders through contempt sanctions.
Read MoreDep’t of Family Servs. v. Currier (Wyoming 2013)
The Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of due process did not require the State of Wyoming to provide an indigent party with counsel in a civil contempt proceeding for nonpayment of child support, because Wyoming had sufficient substitute procedural safeguards to protect indigent obligors against the possibility of wrongful incarceration.
Read More