When Your Ex Won't Follow the Court Order: Enforcement and Contempt in Florida's 14th Judicial Circuit
By Justin Andersson, Esq. | Justin Andersson, P.A., Panama City
For people on either side of an enforcement case in Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington Counties
The judge signed the order. Everybody got a copy. And your ex is acting like it never happened.
Maybe the child support stopped. Maybe it was your weekend and nobody answered the door. Or maybe the house was supposed to be refinanced a year ago, and your name is still on the mortgage.
Or maybe you’re on the other side, holding a motion for contempt and reading the words “writ of bodily attachment” for the first time.
Let’s be honest: a court order only works if somebody makes it work. Whether you’re in Lynn Haven, Wewahitchka, Graceville or Vernon, Florida gives judges real tools to enforce orders, and it gives the person accused real protections. This guide covers both sides.
Enforcement and contempt are not the same thing
Enforcement is the umbrella: every legal tool that turns a court order into real life, from collecting money to getting a deed signed. You usually don’t need a new lawsuit; enforcement generally happens by motion in the same divorce or paternity case.
Contempt is one tool under that umbrella. In plain English, it means disobeying a court order you know about. There are two kinds:
- Civil contempt is meant to get someone to comply, not to punish them. The person "holds the keys": the sanction ends when they do what the order requires.
- Criminal contempt punishes a completed violation and follows the criminal rules. For a violation outside the courtroom, the accused has the right to a lawyer, and the violation must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
What civil contempt requires
For unpaid child support or alimony, Florida’s contempt rule spells out the steps. Other civil contempt follows the same core ideas, drawn mostly from court decisions.
- 1. A clear order. A prior order must clearly require the payment. Florida's appeals courts have held that a judge cannot base contempt on something the order does not say.
- 2. A violation. The person seeking contempt must show the support wasn't paid in full.
- 3. Willfulness and present ability. The judge decides whether the payor had the present ability to pay and willfully didn't. The original order creates a presumption that the payor can pay, and the payor must prove otherwise. Genuine inability is a defense, but not if the person created it.
- 4. A purge. The order must give the person a way out, called a "purge": a specific step (usually a payment) that ends the sanction.
Before anyone goes to jail. Jail requires a purge based on what the person can pay now, plus a separate written finding, with supporting facts, that they have the present ability to comply with it. Florida’s appeals courts have reversed contempt orders that skip that finding, and they have held that jailing someone with no purge is really criminal contempt. If the judge gives time to pay the purge and it isn’t paid, the other side files a sworn statement saying so, the judge may issue a writ, and a person jailed on that writ must be brought before the court within 48 hours to decide whether they can still pay the purge.
Other sanctions include fees, costs, and fines meant to push compliance or cover the other side’s actual loss. If the failure to pay wasn’t willful, the judge can still grant other appropriate relief. A payor who is unemployed or underemployed but able to work can be ordered to look for a job and report to the court.
Pro Tip: A contempt motion must lay out the facts of the violation. If more payments are missed after you file, update the motion so everything owed is before the judge.
Which orders can be enforced by contempt
| Obligation | Contempt available? |
|---|---|
| Child support and alimony | Yes |
| Attorney's fees the court ordered one spouse to pay the other | Yes |
| An act other than paying money, like signing a deed or transferring a title | The court rules allow it, but our appeals court has reversed contempt for unsigned property-division documents; get advice |
| Following the parenting plan and time-sharing schedule | Yes, if the order is clear |
| Money owed under the property division, like an equalizing payment | Generally no |
| Refinancing the house, or paying the mortgage, as ordered | Depends on the order's wording; get advice |
Property-division money is collected like a debt. Florida’s appeals courts have held that money owed under the property division (for example, an equalizing payment that evens out the split) cannot be enforced by contempt. The person owed has a creditor’s remedies instead, like execution and garnishment. A judge can’t relabel a property payment as “alimony” to get around that. What matters is the payment’s real purpose, so “lump sum alimony” truly meant as support can be enforced by contempt. And enforcement isn’t a do-over: a judge can’t use it to redivide property.
Orders to act have teeth. Beyond contempt, the clerk can issue a writ of attachment against a party who misses a deadline to act, the court can appoint someone else to sign in that party’s place, and a judgment ordering a property transfer can itself operate as the transfer once recorded.
The refinance and the mortgage are harder. Another Florida appeals court, whose decisions don’t bind our circuit, has allowed contempt when a party ordered to make reasonable efforts to refinance made no effort at all. Florida’s appeals courts have held that a debt that isn’t support can’t be enforced by contempt, and another Florida appeals court applied that rule to an order to pay mortgages. A mortgage payment ordered as support may be treated differently. Your judgment’s exact wording matters, so get advice first.
Other tools besides contempt
Contempt gets the headlines, but it isn’t always the fastest route.
- Income deduction orders. Every order (other than a temporary order) that sets, modifies or enforces child support or alimony must come with a separate income deduction order if one isn't already in place. It usually takes effect right away, so payment comes straight out of the paycheck, although for good cause the court can delay it until a payment is missed. If there are past-due amounts (called arrears), the order directs the employer to withhold an extra 20 percent or more of the regular payment until they're paid, within federal limits.
- Garnishment. Wages and other money owed to the payor can be garnished for child support and alimony, including by a continuing writ to an employer. An employer that disciplines the employee just because of that writ is in contempt.
- Judgments for arrears. When support runs through the clerk's depository or the State Disbursement Unit, each missed payment can become a final judgment "by operation of law" after notice. The payor can contest only a mistake of fact. Unpaid support can also carry interest, and a judgment doesn't stop you from seeking contempt later.
- Driver license suspension. In cases not handled by the Department of Revenue, once a payor is 15 days late, the person owed can ask the clerk or depository to start the suspension process. The payor then has 20 days to pay, sign a written payment agreement, contest it, or show a listed exception.
- Professional license suspension. Available only after other remedies are exhausted, and only if nothing else is likely to collect.
- Writs. If a party is about to leave Florida or move property out of state, or is fraudulently transferring or hiding property, the court can issue a writ of ne exeat (an order aimed at keeping the party or property in Florida) or an injunction to secure alimony or support. A writ of bodily attachment for support, essentially a civil arrest order, can be served any day or hour, in any Florida county.
If the Department of Revenue’s child support program handles your case, some steps work differently, and a child support hearing officer may hear enforcement. Our Child Support page covers the basics.
Past-due support can't be wiped out
Florida’s appeals courts have held that a judge has no authority to cancel past-due support installments or reduce the amount owed. Also:
- A reduction generally can reach back no earlier than the filing date. Wait a year to file, and the old amount keeps adding up.
- Turning 18 doesn't erase the debt. The Florida Supreme Court has held that the parent owed support can bring a contempt action to enforce a judgment for child support arrears even after the child reaches adulthood.
- Waiting usually doesn't forfeit it. Florida's appeals courts have held that a parent's delay won't bar collecting child support arrears absent extraordinary circumstances. Time limits on very old judgments are a separate, technical question; get advice if the arrears go back many years.
When the problem is time-sharing
Time-sharing is Florida’s term for the parenting schedule. Two rules first:
- If you're owed child support or alimony, you may not refuse to follow the time-sharing schedule because it isn't being paid.
- If you're being denied time-sharing, you must keep paying court-ordered support.
Self-help in either direction hands the other side a contempt motion.
When a parent refuses to honor time-sharing without proper cause, Florida law says the court must award make-up time-sharing: a sufficient amount of extra time to compensate for what was missed, consistent with the child’s best interests, scheduled for the convenience of the parent who was denied, and at the expense of the parent who broke the schedule. The court may also:
- Order the violating parent to pay the other parent's reasonable attorney's fees and costs
- Order a circuit-approved parenting course, or community service
- Modify the parenting plan, at the wronged parent's request, if that's in the child's best interests
- Impose other reasonable sanctions, including contempt
Florida law lets the court use contempt against a parent who refuses to honor the time-sharing schedule, and Florida’s appeals courts have upheld contempt against a parent who enrolled the child in a new school without the other parent, in violation of a shared parental responsibility order. One caution: contempt is about compliance. If your real goal is a different parenting plan, talk with a lawyer about what has to be filed and proven. Our guides to time-sharing laws and to modifications in the 14th Circuit cover that ground.
Pro Tip: Keep a simple log of dates, missed exchanges and screenshots. The court has to calculate the time denied, and a judge can do that from a calendar a lot faster than from a forty-minute story.
Who pays the attorney's fees?
The judge may order one party to pay a reasonable amount toward the other’s fees and costs, after considering both parties’ finances. Florida’s appeals courts have held that fees in divorce-related contempt proceedings generally turn on need and ability to pay. For time-sharing violations, a separate provision lets the court order the violating parent to pay the enforcement fees; how much finances matter there is not settled. And a party found to have refused to follow an order without justification can’t be awarded fees or costs in the enforcement action.
If you're the one accused
Being served is scary. It’s also manageable, if you take it seriously.
Don’t ignore it. The notice of hearing on a support contempt motion must warn you, in capital letters, that if you don’t appear the court may issue a writ of bodily attachment for your arrest, and you could be held up to 48 hours before a hearing. Take that warning literally and show up.
Bring proof. The original order presumes you can pay, and it’s on you to prove you can’t. The judge can look at all your assets, not just your checking account. If you’re self-employed and don’t produce your records, Florida’s appeals courts have held you can’t complain when the judge relies on your lifestyle and unexplained business withdrawals instead.
File to modify, promptly. If your income genuinely dropped, the fix is a petition to modify, not a smaller payment you picked yourself. The court can reduce support even if you’re behind. And Florida’s appeals courts have held that a payor who filed to reduce support first is entitled to have it heard before, or together with, the other side’s later contempt motion.
Know what isn’t a defense:
- "The order was wrong." Florida's appeals courts have held you can be held in contempt for violating an order even if it was legally mistaken.
- "I bought gifts and covered the summer." Florida's appeals courts have held those can't be credited against child support arrears.
- "My oldest turned 18, so I cut the payment." If your order has a schedule that lowers support as each child ages out (orders entered since October 1, 2010 are required to include one), follow the schedule. If support was one combined amount with no schedule, it doesn't drop automatically. You have to file.
DO:
- Keep records of every payment, exchange and message
- Pay the way the order says, through the State Disbursement Unit or the clerk if it requires that
- Ask the court to clarify an order you honestly don't understand
DON’T:
- Withhold the kids over money, or money over the kids
- Ignore a motion, a notice of hearing or a hearing date
- Decide on your own what you "really" owe
How enforcement works in our circuit
Local procedures don’t change the law of contempt, but they shape your hearing.
- Plan to be in the courtroom. Contempt hearings are evidentiary, and some judges in our circuit hold evidentiary hearings in person unless the court approves a remote appearance.
- Pick-up hearings are short. Many judges in our circuit cap a hearing on a child pick-up motion at one hour, and the cap can be as short as half an hour.
- Emergencies need paperwork. Before setting an emergency hearing, a judge may require a detailed written motion explaining why it can't wait.
- Confer first. A judge's procedures may require a good-faith effort to resolve a motion with the other side before you file it, and a statement in the motion that you tried. Whether that covers enforcement motions isn't always clear, so confer anyway.
Frequently asked questions
No. The parent owed support may not refuse to honor the time-sharing schedule. Withholding the children can make you the one facing contempt.
Not automatically. The judge must find ability and willfulness, set a purge the person can pay now, and make a separate written finding that they can pay it. Paying the purge ends the jail sanction.
Generally no. Judges can't cancel or reduce past-due installments, though you can still dispute whether the amount claimed is correct. A modification changes support going forward, and a reduction generally can reach back no earlier than the filing date.
Generally no. Property-division money is collected like a debt. An order to sign a deed or transfer a title is different. The court rules give the judge other ways to get it done: appointing someone else to sign, and, when a judgment orders a transfer of property, treating the judgment itself as the transfer once it's recorded. The rules also allow contempt, but the appeals court that covers our circuit has reversed contempt for failing to sign documents under a property division, so get advice before relying on it.
In civil contempt, generally not, because the judge must find a present ability to comply before jail. In criminal contempt, you have the right to be represented by a lawyer. If you can't afford one, tell the judge right away and ask whether one can be appointed.
Final Thought
A court order is a promise the court made to your family. When it isn’t kept, you have options, and many of them don’t involve anyone going to jail.
If you’re behind, the worst thing you can do is nothing. Show up, bring your proof, and if your life has changed, ask the court to change the order the right way.
You’ve got this. And I’ve got your back.
Justin Andersson, Esq.
Your 850 Divorce Lawyer
Justin Andersson, P.A. | 435 W. Oak Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
Serving Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington Counties, in person or by video.
Questions? Call (850) 871-7397 or visit www.850divorcelawyer.com.
This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes about Florida law and 14th Judicial Circuit procedures as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Judges’ procedures vary and change over time, and every case turns on its own facts.
Florida law referenced: Sections 61.046, 61.11, 61.12, 61.13, 61.1301, 61.13015, 61.13016, 61.14, 61.16 and 61.17, Florida Statutes; Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure 12.491, 12.570 and 12.615.