Contempt of court is the willful disobedience of a court order. When someone — an ex-spouse, a co-parent, a business partner, or anyone else — defies a court order, the remedy is a contempt petition. It's the court's primary enforcement tool, and it comes up constantly in family law, support, and civil litigation.
Contempt is not automatic. The court does not monitor compliance on its own. If someone violates an order, the aggrieved party must bring it to the court's attention by filing a petition for contempt. The court then holds a hearing to determine whether the violation occurred and, if so, what the consequences should be.
Pennsylvania distinguishes between civil contempt and criminal contempt. The distinction matters because it determines what the petitioner must prove, what remedies are available, and what procedural protections the respondent receives.
Civil Contempt
Purpose: To coerce future compliance. The goal is to get the person to do what the order requires.
Standard: The petitioner must prove the violation by a preponderance of the evidence. The respondent can defend by showing an inability to comply.
Sanctions: Conditional — the contemnor can "purge" the contempt by complying. For example, a person jailed for civil contempt can be released by paying the overdue support.
Common in: Custody violations, unpaid support, failure to comply with discovery orders, refusal to convey property.
Criminal Contempt
Purpose: To punish past disobedience and vindicate the authority of the court.
Standard: The violation must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The respondent has the right to counsel and other criminal procedural protections.
Sanctions: Unconditional — a fixed fine or a fixed jail sentence that cannot be purged by later compliance.
Common in: Repeated willful violations, defiance of PFA orders, witness intimidation, obstruction of court proceedings.
Most contempt petitions in family law are civil contempt. The petitioner wants compliance — they want the child returned on time, the support paid, or the property divided as ordered. Criminal contempt is reserved for more serious or repeated violations where the court's authority itself is at stake.
Custody contempt arises when a parent violates the terms of a custody order — denying the other parent their court-ordered time, failing to return the child on schedule, making unilateral decisions about the child's schooling or medical care in violation of the order, or interfering with the other parent's communication with the child.
To establish custody contempt, the petitioner must prove that a valid court order existed, the respondent had knowledge of the order, and the respondent willfully violated it. The respondent can defend by showing the violation was not willful — for example, that the child was ill and unable to travel, or that a genuine emergency prevented compliance.
Sanctions for custody contempt can include makeup custody time, modification of the custody schedule, payment of the other parent's attorney fees, community service, probation, and in serious cases, incarceration. Courts can also order counseling, parenting classes, or supervised visitation. The sanctions are meant to be remedial — to fix the problem and deter future violations — not punitive (unless criminal contempt is pursued).
Support contempt is one of the most common types of contempt proceedings in Pennsylvania. When an obligor falls behind on child support or spousal support payments, the obligee can file a contempt petition with the Domestic Relations Section.
The obligor's primary defense is inability to pay — not unwillingness. The distinction is important. A person who has the ability to pay and chooses not to can be held in contempt and jailed until they purge the contempt by paying. A person who genuinely cannot pay — due to job loss, disability, or other circumstances — should not be held in contempt, but should file a modification petition to adjust the support amount.
In practice, courts look at the obligor's earning capacity, assets, lifestyle, and efforts to find employment when evaluating ability to pay. An obligor who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed can be imputed income based on their earning capacity, and contempt can be based on that imputed ability to pay.
Contempt is not limited to family law. In civil litigation, contempt proceedings are used to enforce discovery orders (when a party refuses to produce documents or appear for a deposition), injunctions, settlement agreements that have been incorporated into court orders, and any other court directive that a party ignores.
The consequences in civil litigation contempt can be significant — including striking pleadings, entering default judgment, imposing monetary sanctions, or incarcerating the contemnor until they comply.
The process begins with a Petition for Contempt filed with the court that entered the original order. The petition must identify the specific order being violated, describe the specific acts or omissions that constitute the violation, and request appropriate relief.
The court schedules a hearing. The respondent must be served with the petition and given notice of the hearing. At the hearing, the petitioner presents evidence of the violation. The respondent has the opportunity to respond and raise defenses. For civil contempt, the petitioner bears the initial burden of proving the violation. If established, the burden shifts to the respondent to prove an inability to comply.
If the court finds contempt, it enters an order imposing sanctions. The sanctions depend on the type of contempt, the severity of the violation, and the circumstances. For civil contempt, the order typically includes a "purge condition" — something the contemnor can do to avoid or end the sanction (like paying a specific amount or returning the child). For criminal contempt, the sanction is fixed and unconditional.
No. Contempt requires willful disobedience, which presupposes knowledge of the order. If you were never served with the order and genuinely did not know it existed, you cannot be held in contempt. However, once you become aware of the order — even informally — continued non-compliance can constitute contempt.
Absolutely not. Support and custody are independent obligations. A parent's failure to comply with a custody order does not excuse the other parent from paying support, and vice versa. If the other parent is violating the custody order, the proper remedy is a contempt petition — not self-help. Withholding support will put you in contempt.
Yes. Civil contempt can result in incarceration, but only if the court finds the obligor has the ability to pay and is willfully refusing. The person jailed for civil contempt holds the "key to the jailhouse door" — they can purge the contempt and be released by paying the amount the court specifies. The court cannot incarcerate someone who genuinely lacks the ability to pay.
You are not required to have a lawyer, but contempt proceedings involve evidentiary presentations, burden-shifting, and legal arguments that benefit significantly from legal representation. If you are the respondent in a criminal contempt proceeding, you have the right to appointed counsel if you cannot afford an attorney. In civil contempt, there is no automatic right to appointed counsel, but the stakes — including potential incarceration — make representation strongly advisable.
In many cases, yes. Pennsylvania courts have the discretion to award attorney fees to the successful party in a contempt action, particularly in family law cases. The rationale is that you should not have to bear the cost of forcing someone to comply with an order they should have followed voluntarily. Whether fees are awarded depends on the court's discretion and the circumstances of the case.
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