Enforcements

A marital settlement agreement or divorce decree entered by a court will resolve issues such as parental responsibility and timesharing, spousal and child support, distribution of assets and liabilities, and any other issues before the court for resolution.  However, obtaining a final resolution of these issues, and enforcing the agreement or the court decree, are two different matters.  Frequently, one party or the other will be resistant, stubborn, or defiant in honoring their obligations.  Various remedies are available under the law to encourage compliance with agreed-upon or court-ordered obligations.

For example, spousal and child support may be enforced by garnishment of income and payment through a court depository that keeps records.  In some cases, support obligations may be enforced by a suspension or denial of professional licenses or certificates, or even a suspension of driver’s licenses and motor vehicle registrations.  An intentional refusal to obey a court-ordered support obligation may also be brought to the court’s attention through contempt proceedings, and the court has the power to incarcerate one who wilfully refuses to pay a support obligation while having the ability to do so.  A delinquent payor of support can have their tax refund intercepted.  In addition, a civil judgment can be entered against a delinquent payor, which allows property to be taken to satisfy a support obligation.  These are but a few methods of enforcing spousal and child support obligations. 

Sometimes a parent will act in an obstinate manner by depriving the other parent of their agreed-upon or court-ordered rights to shared parenting decision-making or timesharing with the children.  In such cases, the court has the power to award the parent extra timesharing to compensate for the timesharing missed.  The court may even order the offending parent to do community service, or to attend an approved parenting course.  If requested, and if it is in the best interests of the children, the court may go so far as to modify the timesharing schedule and parenting plan.  

These are just a few of the enforcement remedies available to the court, as the court has the power to impose any reasonable sanction as a result of noncompliance.  All of these enforcement remedies are for the purpose of obtaining compliance with the agreed-upon or court-ordered obligations of a recalcitrant party.  It must be remembered, however, that self help remedies such as depriving timesharing due to non-payment of support, or denying support due to a deprivation of timesharing, are utterly disallowed under the law and frowned upon by the courts.

The Law Offices of Robert L. Bogen will protect and enforce your rights and your children’s rights.  In most cases, the offending parent will bear the financial burden of promoting frequent and continuing contact, and will also be subject to having an award of reasonable attorney’s fees and costs entered against them to help pay such expenses incurred by the non-offending parent.