Contempt actions are the vehicles to enforcement of a court order. That is, when someone refuses to provide the children for a court-ordered visitation, or does't pay child support, or violates a no contact order, the other party can attempt to have them held in contempt. The underlying idea is that the person violating the order has disrespected the court's authority by violating its order, and should be punished accordingly.
As you might expect, this subject is long and involves not only fairly detailed statutes, but also many cases interpreting those statutes. Therefore, this post, like ones before it, will be broken into to segments: the statutes, and the cases. Today, the rules as set out by the legislature.
Iowa Code 598.23 states that willful violations of a temporary order or decree in a divorce case may cause the violating party to be held in contempt, which can include a jail sentence up to thirty days for each offense. In the alternative, the court can order other punishments or solutions, such as requiring child support to be taken directly out of the violator's paycheck (if being punished for nonpayment of support), modify visitation to compensate for lost time, transfer custody or order joint custody, order exchanges to occur through a neutral party, or other sanctions, requirements, or even mediation to enforce the custody arrangement.
A finding of contempt for nonpayment of child support has its own set of rules. Under Iowa Code 598.23A, one can be found in contempt for nonpayment of support or cash medical. If found in contempt, there are a variety of punishments available. The violator can be required to post bond in the amount of the arrears plus 12 months of current support, which can be forfeited to the other party after nonpayment within three months. The court can require the violator to do community service, which can be released by the violator becomes employed and starts paying child support, pays at least six months of support, or a change in circumstances prevents the violator from performing community service.
Under this code section, the court can prevent a person not paying support from participating in any activities that require a license. However, if this causes "extreme hardship," the court may allow such participation under certain conditions. The license is released when the support is paid.
A finding of contempt can expose the violator to payment of the court costs associated with the contempt proceeding. Iowa Code 598.24. One can be found in contempt for violation of an injunction, which includes restraining or no contact orders. Iowa Rule 1.511. One can also be required to pay a find of up to $1000. Iowa Code 665.4.
Logistically, contempt actions are a little complex to file. The process is unlike most other in the law, and certainly in family law. For instance, there must be an affidavit showing the nature of the transaction. Iowa Code 665.6. There must also be personal service upon the violator, including notice of when the hearing is scheduled. Iowa Code 665.7. While there are some actions under family law that can be handled easily by one's self, this is probably not one of them.
Tomorrow: the cases that flush out other contempt issues.
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