Santa Clarita Divorce | Punishment For California Contempt Of Court

Santa Clarita Divorce | Punishment For California Contempt Of Court

I had just finished up writing an article about California Divorce and Contempt of Court and thought I would follow up by writing about what the punishment can be after the divorce court makes a finding of contempt of court.

The punishment for contempt of court comes from California Code of Civil Procedure 1218(c) which states that for each act of contempt, the convicted spouse or parent shall be fined up to $1000 and or imprisoned for up to five days. Notice that this is for each act of contempt. In support proceedings, each monthly payment is a separate act. The court also has the power to order community service.

he punishment in family law proceedings is mandatory.

On a first offense, the spouse or parent convicted of contempt must be ordered to perform community service for up to 120 hours or be imprisoned for 120 hours, which amounts to five days, for each count of contempt. Therefore, for example, if there was a failure to pay child support for 10 months, that is 10 separate counts or 50 days in jail.

If there is a second contempt finding, the rules become more severe, the punishment now becomes 120 hours of community service and imprisonment for up to 120 hours, for each act of contempt.

For a third and any further contempt findings, the convicted spouse or parent must be imprisoned for up to 240 hours (which amounts to 10 days) and ordered to perform up to 240 hours of community service, for each count of contempt.

There are also fees and costs associated with the contempt proceeding.

The court must take into account a spouse or parent’s employment schedule when ordering community service or jail. After all, how is a person found to have violated a court order, especially a support order, supposed to make support payments if your she loses his or her job?

The court is not mandated to award attorneys fees in California contempt of court proceedings. It is a discretionary function of the court.

If you need to file a contempt of court for your divorce case please give us a call for help.  We can prepare your contempt of court motion, file it with the court and serve your spouse to get you into court.

 

References

Farzad Family Law Blog

California Code of Civil Procedure

 

Santa Clarita Divorce | Filing For Contempt Of Court For Divorce

Santa Clarita Divorce | Filing For Contempt Of Court For Divorce

While we handle both uncontested and contested divorce cases, every once and a while we will recommend that you file a Contempt of Court motion.  I wanted to discussed the filing of Contempt of Court and when you may want to use it as I am in the middle of completing a contempt of court for child support for a client.

When you have a court order and the other spouse is not following the order of the court, you have “contempt of court”.  When this happens you have 2 choices.  You can either file a regular Request For Order (motion for hearing) asking that the court compel the other party to comply with the previous order. Second you file for Contempt of Court.

The difference is that when you ask the court to compel the other party to comply with previously given orders, usually all the court will do is admonish the other party harshly and advise them to comply.  It seems odd to have to go to court to have the court order the other party to do something that they have already ordered them to do.

This is where Contempt of Court comes in handy.  Contempt of Court is actually criminal in nature. If the court finds the other party in Contempt, the possible penalties include jail sentence, community service, and fine.  It is a serious offense to file against or be accused of Contempt of Court and the penalties can be $1,000 or community service per count of contempt.  You can read the article where we discuss the penalties of California contempt of court cases here.

When I say each count of contempt, i am referring to the fact that, for instance, if you missed 5 payments for child support, each of those missed payments is a count of contempt.  So you can see that the charges really can add up.

So what would be some of the uses for contempt of court?

  1. Contempt of Court of California Child Support Orders
  2. Contempt of Court of California Spousal Support Orders
  3. Contempt of Court for Failure To Pay Attorney Fees
  4. Contempt of Court for Failure To Follow an order to seek work
  5. Contempt of Court for violation of domestic violence or other restraining orders
  6. Contempt of Court to enforce nonpayment of the debt
  7. Contempt of Court of California child custody and visitation orders
  8. Contempt of Court for failure to pay an equalization payment
  9. Contempt of Court in splitting property assets

The above contempt of court charges are the most common.  Probably the most filed contempt of court charges are in relation to contempt or child support and spousal support.

If you need assistance filing a contempt of court case against your spouse please give us a call.

Santa Clarita Divorce | What Is Short Title On Divorce Forms

Santa Clarita Divorce | What Is Short Title On Divorce Forms

A lot of people try to start their own divorce before calling us.  That is fine, but they usually run into some trouble along the way and need our Santa Clarita divorce service to bail them out.  And we are able to do that by picking up where you left off in the process.

The forms are very confusing for many and people have a lot of questions.  One of those questions I was asked recently was, “What is the short title mean on the divorce forms?”

Some of the divorce forms have a field where it says, “Short Title.”

What the courts are looking for here are one of 2 things.  They want to know who the parties are, but not the entire names.  So this is what you would put in the “Short Title” box of the California divorce forms.

1.  The first option is to put your last name vs. their last name.  So if you guys were married it may be, “Smith vs. Smith.”  If your last names were different you would want to use the correct last names of course.

2.  The other option is to put, “IRMO Smith”.  IRMO stands for “In Re Marriage Of” and is used to reference the case by last name.  If you were every to look up a case file online you would search by using In Re Marriage Of.

Both of these practices are used by the Courts, but keep in mind that each Court and each County will have a local rule on which they prefer to be used.  Even if you use the wrong one I doubt it would ever become an issue.

So there you have it.  Now you know what to use in the field, “short title.”

I figured it was an easy post to write especially since someone had asked me about it, figured someone else would also have the same question.

Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Lakewood CA. Our full service Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Lakewood CA. Our full service Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Lakewood CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service

Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Marina Del Rey. Our full service Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service.

Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Marina Del Rey. Our full service Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Marina Del Rey Divorce Paralegal Service.

Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Whittier. Our full service Cerritos Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Whittier. Our full service Cerritos Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Whittier CA Divorce Paralegal Service.

Cerritos CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Cerritos CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Cerritos. Our full service Cerritos Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Cerritos CA divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Paralegal Divorce service in Cerritos CA

Watch the short video below to learn more about Cerritos CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Cerritos CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Cerritos. Our full service Cerritos Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Cerritos CA divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Paralegal Divorce service in Cerritos CA

Watch the short video below to learn more about Cerritos CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Bellflower CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Bellflower CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Bellflower. Our full service Bellflower Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Bellflower CA divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Paralegal Divorce service in Bellflower CA

Watch the short video below to learn more about Bellflower CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Bellflower CA Divorce Paralegal Service

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Bellflower. Our full service Bellflower Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Bellflower CA divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Paralegal Divorce service in Bellflower CA

Watch the short video below to learn more about Bellflower CA Divorce Paralegal Service

Santa Clarita Divorce | Living Together Prior To Marriage Does Not Count

Santa Clarita Divorce | Living Together Prior To Marriage Does Not Count

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Santa Clarita. Our full service Santa Clarita Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Santa Clarita divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss the issue of living together prior to marriage and that it does nothing to add to the length of marriage when you get a divorce.  I bring this up because we had a client who had been together for many years with her spouse, but soon after they were married, they got a divorce.  Even thought it may have seemed like a long term marriage because they lived together so long, unfortunately the courts will only be looking from the date of marriage to the date of separation.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Santa Clarita Divorce | Living Together Prior To Marriage Does Not Count

Santa Clarita Divorce | Living Together Prior To Marriage Does Not Count

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Santa Clarita. Our full service Santa Clarita Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Santa Clarita divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss the issue of living together prior to marriage and that it does nothing to add to the length of marriage when you get a divorce.  I bring this up because we had a client who had been together for many years with her spouse, but soon after they were married, they got a divorce.  Even thought it may have seemed like a long term marriage because they lived together so long, unfortunately the courts will only be looking from the date of marriage to the date of separation.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Santa Clarita Divorce | Living Together Prior To Marriage Does Not Count

Paralegal Divorce Specialist Hermosa Beach CA

Paralegal Divorce Specialist Hermosa Beach CA

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Hermosa Beach. Our full service Hermosa Beach Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Hermosa Beach divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Paralegal Divorce service in Hermosa Beach CA

Watch the short video below to learn more about Paralegal Divorce Specialist Hermosa Beach CA

Paralegal Divorce Specialist Hermosa Beach CA

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Hermosa Beach. Our full service Hermosa Beach Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Hermosa Beach divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss our Paralegal Divorce service in Hermosa Beach CA

Watch the short video below to learn more about Paralegal Divorce Specialist Hermosa Beach CA