Hearing Child Support

Failure to obey a court order is called contempt of court. If you owe unpaid child support, the other parent can ask for a hearing before a judge and ask that you be held in contempt of court.If you don't attend, the court can issue a warrant for your arrest.

A: Expect to be in court anywhere from two to four hours. Most hearings only last 15-20 minutes, but your matter may not be the first case called. Other hearings are scheduled for the same date and time as your hearing. This means you could wait anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours before your case is called.

If the child support owed exceeds $10,000 or is overdue by more than two years, the offense is a felony that carries up to a two-year prison sentence.

If you don't show up to your family court custody hearing, the court will likely enter a default judgment against you or dismiss the case. In most cases, the dismissal will be without prejudice, which means that if you are the petitioner, you may have the ability to refile your petition.

In some cases if you don't show up for your family law hearing what the court could do is enter what is called a default judgement against you. What that means is that the court could give the other party all the relief that they are asking for.

A Notice of Hearing is a prepared legal document that invokes all parties to hear a motion and may be emitted by any party.A "Notice of Hearing" must be delivered to all parties concerning: the court clerk, the plaintiff, and the defendant. The date requested must allow all parties due time to prepare.

When one party refuses to follow a court order, the other party can file a motion for contempt.The purpose of civil contempt is to force compliance with the terms of the order; whereas, the purpose of criminal contempt is to punish a party's non-compliance.

To initiate a civil contempt/enforcement proceeding against a party who is not complying with a prior court order, you must file a motion with the court explaining what the party has failed to do. This form should be typed or printed in black ink.

Once a party has been served with a motion for contempt, they have twenty (20) days to answer or respond to the motion. Upon responding to a motion for contempt, a defendant may either assert a defense or purge the contempt by complying with the court's order and paying any past due support obligations.