Court Procedures / Evidence / Service

Generally, when someone doesn’t follow anything in a court order or court-approved settlement, the other person may be able to file a violation/contempt petition in the same court and ask the judge to order that the other party do what he was ordered to do and that he be punished for failing to do it. One possible outcome for failure to follow an order to pay money, for example, may possibly be that a judge could give him a specific amount of time to pay the money owed and could attach penalties to it if he doesn’t (such as fines and even possible jail time). You may want to ask an attorney about the specific penalties available in your situation - including whether or not you may be able to get a money judgment from the court and a lien for the money owed, which you may then try to attach to his property or bank accounts.

You may want to consider looking at your divorce order to see if it includes anything specific about what should be done if either side violated the order – for example, you may have agreed to go to arbitration or you may have agreed to give each other notice before filing in court, let’s say. If you are not sure how to interpret the language in your divorce order and you had a divorce lawyer on the case, you may want to contact him or her before filing to ask for clarification on what to do in case of a violation. Also, if you don’t have a lawyer, you may want one to help you file the violation/contempt petition. Here is a link for free and paid lawyers: LINK