Contempt Charges After Divorce
Your divorce decree says one thing and your ex does another. The exchanges happen late or not at all, the money arrives when it suits them, and nothing you say changes it. At some point somebody tells you to file for contempt.
That is often the right move. It is also the move most people make too early, for the wrong incident, and in a way that damages their own position. This article explains what a court actually has to find before it will act, and what it can do when it does.
This is not legal advice. It is a description of how these applications are decided, written by the person a Colorado court appoints to look into the underlying facts.
What are contempt charges after divorce?
Contempt is the mechanism a court uses to enforce its own orders. It is not a new case and it is not a criminal charge in the ordinary sense. It is you going back to the same court and saying that the order it already made is being ignored.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. You are not asking the court to decide who is right. You are asking it to enforce something it already decided. That is a much narrower question, and an easier one to win when the facts support you.
What actually counts as contempt?
The order has to say something specific, and the other person has to have failed to do it.
This is where most applications fall apart. A decree that says the parents will communicate respectfully gives a court almost nothing to enforce. A decree that says the child is collected at 6pm on Friday from a named address gives it everything.
Vague obligations are difficult to enforce because a judge cannot measure them. Specific ones are easy, because either the child was collected at 6pm or they were not.
What does a court have to find?
Three things, and the third is the one that catches people out.
First, that a valid order existed and the other person knew about it. Second, that they did not do what it required. Third, and this is the part that decides most cases, that they could have complied and chose not to.
That third element is why contempt is harder than it looks. A parent who genuinely could not pay is in a different position from a parent who would not pay. A parent whose car broke down on the way to a handover is in a different position from one who simply did not leave the house. Courts spend most of their time on that distinction, not on whether the order was breached.
If you are asking what you need to show, it is not that something went wrong. It is that they chose it.
What happens when you file in Colorado?
Colorado sets out a specific process for parenting time disputes, with deadlines attached.
Under , a verified motion can be filed alleging that a parent is not complying with a parenting time order. The court then has thirty-five days to do one of three things. It can deny the motion if the allegation is inadequate. It can set the matter down for a hearing. Or it can send both parents to mediation and require a report back within sixty-three days.
So the realistic timeline is weeks rather than days, and mediation is a genuine possibility rather than a formality. Many parents are surprised to find themselves in a mediation room when they expected a judge.
What can a court actually order?
A good deal more than most people realise, and the statute spells it out.
The court can order makeup parenting time, and the conditions are specific. It must be the same type and duration as the time that was denied, including weekends, holidays and summer.
It must also happen within six months of the noncompliance. Where a particular holiday cannot be made up that quickly, the limit extends to a year. The time is taken at the point and in the manner chosen by the aggrieved parent, where that suits the child.
It can order a parental education programme or family counselling, in both cases at the expense of the parent who did not comply. It can require that parent to post a bond to secure future compliance.
It can impose a civil fine of up to one hundred dollars for each incident of denied parenting time. It can make a finding of contempt and attach a fine or a jail sentence to it. And it can schedule a hearing to modify the existing arrangement altogether.
That last one is worth sitting with. Persistent noncompliance can end with the arrangement itself being changed, which is a far larger consequence than a fine.
The mistake that costs people most
Withholding the children because the money has stopped.
It is the most understandable reaction in family law and one of the most damaging. The statute is explicit on this point. A court must separate the issues of child support and parenting time, and it shall not condition child support upon parenting time.
The two are legally independent. Unpaid support does not entitle you to stop the other parent seeing the children, and denied parenting time does not entitle anyone to stop paying. A parent who ties them together usually arrives in court having turned a strong position into a shared one.
If support is the problem, enforce support. If parenting time is the problem, enforce parenting time. Our post on covers how these decisions read later.
When does filing backfire?
When the incident is small and the pattern is not yet there.
I read these files as a court-appointed investigator, and the ones that go badly share a shape. One missed handover, filed within a fortnight, written in language that sounds furious. The court looks at that and sees a parent who escalates, rather than a parent who was wronged.
The applications that succeed look different. They cover a run of incidents over months. They are dated and factual. They show that the parent tried to resolve it directly first, in writing, and were ignored. The tone is flat.
There is a second way it backfires. Contempt proceedings are adversarial by design, and they make the working relationship worse for a while. That is a price worth paying for a real pattern. It is rarely worth paying to win a point about one Thursday.
What should you have before you file?
Four things, and they take weeks to build rather than days.
A copy of the order with the exact clause that was breached. A dated log of each incident, recording what the order required and what actually happened. Keep that in plain factual language.
Then any third party record that confirms it, such as a school register, a message timestamp or a witness. And evidence that you raised it directly in writing and gave them a chance to fix it.
Keep the log boring. A record of behaviour lets a judge reach their own conclusion. A record of your conclusions invites them to discount the whole document. Our post on covers how to keep a record that holds up.
When is this not a contempt problem?
When the order itself no longer fits.
Sometimes repeated noncompliance is a sign that the arrangement stopped working, not that someone is defying the court. A schedule built for a five year old does not survive a teenager with a weekend job. Enforcing an order that no longer fits produces a compliant arrangement nobody can live with.
If the order is the problem, the remedy is modification, not contempt. Our guide to covers how these arrangements are usually built and when they need rebuilding.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if you are found in contempt of court after divorce? A court can order makeup parenting time. It can require a parenting class or family counselling, at your expense. It can make you post a bond, or impose a civil fine of up to one hundred dollars per denied incident. It can attach a fine or a jail sentence to a contempt finding. Persistent noncompliance can also trigger a hearing to change the arrangement.
How do you beat a contempt charge for child support? The usual defence is inability rather than refusal. A court has to find that you could have complied and chose not to. Evidence of job loss, illness or a genuine change in circumstances goes to that question. Speak to an attorney, because this is one area where the detail matters enormously.
How long does a contempt motion take in Colorado? Under C.R.S. 14-10-129.5 the court has thirty-five days from a verified motion to deny it, set a hearing, or order mediation. Where mediation is ordered, the parties report back within sixty-three days. So weeks rather than days, and often longer.
Can you stop paying support if they withhold the children? No. Colorado law requires a court to separate the two issues and says it shall not condition child support upon parenting time. They are legally independent. Tying them together usually damages your own position rather than theirs.
Sources
Colorado Revised Statutes section 14-10-129.5, Disputes concerning parenting time. https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_14-10-129.5
Colorado Revised Statutes section 14-10-129, Modification of parenting time. https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_14-10-129
Colorado Revised Statutes section 14-10-124, Best interests of the child. https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_14-10-124