How to Handle a Contempt Complaint Against You for Child Support
© Shane Flait (2011)

Fathers who have not paid all the child support ordered often find themselves confronting a Complaint for Contempt for not paying everything ordered. Too many fathers are unjustly sent to jail under a Judgement of Contempt without receiving the ‘due process’ they deserve. Here’s how to handle your case if a Contempt Complaint is filed against you.

Let me say first that the family courts effectively kidnap the children of most fit fathers despite fathers demanding to care directly for their children. This is unconstitutional. Then, the family court judges extort money from these fathers by ordering them to pay the mothers an amount of child support that leaves these fathers barely able to support themselves – if they can at all. No law requires the mother to spend the ‘child support’ on the child.

There are two types of contempt: civil contempt and criminal contempt. The purpose of civil contempt is remedial. Its aim is to coerce the performance of a required act by the disobedient party (usually the father) for the benefit of the aggrieved complainant (usually the mother). This is most often the contempt judgment found against fathers who can’t pay all the child support ordered.

Under a finding of civil contempt, the contempt judgment requires the father to go to jail for a week, month or up to six months. But if he pays whatever he owes, he’ll be let out of jail immediately. This is how the coercion – or extortion – is carried out.

It’s important to realize that a judgment of civil contempt doesn’t mean that you simply did not comply with the order. So, simply not paying all the child support allegedly owed by you doesn’t mean you’re in contempt. It means that there was a

• clear and unequivocal written command of the court AND
• an equally clear and undoubted disobedience AND
• the court must find that the defendant had the ability to comply at the time of the contempt judgment.

All three of these conditions must be proven by clear and convincing evidence – a much higher burden of proof than ‘by preponderance of evidence’. And it’s the complainant (usually the mother) that must prove contempt by clear and convincing evidence. Be sure, though, to gather evidence that exonerates you of any or all of these conditions too.

The Contempt Hearing will be set up by the court which is a regular hearing - meaning it is not a trial unless you request a trial at the hearing. But you want to demand a trial (often called an evidentiary hearing) so you can have the other side sworn in so they’re responsible for perjured statements.

U. S. case law, UNITED STATES EX REL TOTH V. QUARLES, 350 U.S. 11, 16 (1955) says that jury trials are a must when holding a trial for civil contempt where "clear and convincing" evidence must be produced. But many states deny you a jury by restricting Contempt Judgments jail orders to less than 6 months in jail… more denial of due process protections.

Prepare for going to a contempt hearing against you:

1.      prepare with all proof or evidence you can find to show exactly what problem has caused the under payment of child support and prepare a motion to request an evidentiary hearing (a trial).

2.      And, orally request an evidentiary hearing (trial) immediately on facts of the case, and

3.       have everyone sworn in at hearing so they are all responsible under perjury consideration for what they say.

If all three above conditions are not present in a civil contempt judgment against you, then the judge has illegally imposed a fraudulent contempt judgment on you.

If you are found in Contempt, then file a ‘notice of appeal’ within 30 days of this judgment and order transcripts and notify the other side within 10days of this request that you are getting the transcript of the hearing. Have someone else do this if you are immediately put in jail. When you get out, look up and follow Appeals Procedure in your states Rules of Court.

Unfortunately, the enormous divorce and domestic violence industry thrives on this unjust denial of a fathers rights – court kidnapping of his children, extortion payments, and denial of constitutional due process;  and  it works to maintain this injustice.  So, you shouldn’t expect justice where you’ve already been unjustly thrown into the circumstance you’re in.

Many fathers under a contempt judgment and jail borrow money that’s not theirs to get out of jail. Their childsupport-burdened financial circumstance will probably not allow them the opportunity to pay it back. The court doesn’t care who they get the money from and this tyrannical system justifies it extortion procedures by ‘results’.

My advice is “never submit to extortion” under contempt judgments. If you do, you are fostering such a tyrannical system. Learn to fight for your rights and the return of justice for you and your children.

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Shane Flait is a writer and educator