When someone ignores a divorce decree, the court that issued it can force compliance and punish the violation. Failure to comply with a divorce decree is treated as contempt of court, and the available penalties include fines, wage garnishment, suspended licenses, passport denial, asset seizure, and jail until the person does what the order requires. You start the process by filing a motion in the same court that entered the decree.
Is This Enforcement or a Modification Issue
Before filing anything, figure out which problem you actually have. Enforcement is for defiance: your ex has the ability to follow the decree and simply refuses. Modification is for genuine change: a job loss, a health crisis, a relocation that makes the original terms unworkable. Courts will not hold someone in contempt for failing to do something that has become genuinely impossible, so filing a contempt motion against an ex who truly cannot pay is a losing move. On the other hand, an ex earning the same income who just stopped paying is a textbook enforcement case. Many cases stall because the wrong process gets used.
If you are the one who can no longer meet an obligation, file for modification immediately rather than going quiet. Filing does not erase debt already owed, but it shows good faith and can prevent a contempt finding going forward. Doing nothing while arrears pile up is the worst option, and it is a common one.
Civil and Criminal Contempt
Courts enforce divorce decrees through contempt proceedings, and there are two types. Civil contempt is designed to pressure the noncompliant party into compliance. The judge imposes a penalty, often a fine or jail, that ends the moment the person complies. Criminal contempt punishes the violation itself; the penalty is fixed regardless of later compliance.1Federal Judicial Center. The Contempt Power of the Federal Courts Family court contempt is usually civil, because the goal is to get the other person to do what the decree required rather than punish them after the fact.p>
Judges also have discretion to order the noncompliant party to pay the other side’s attorney fees and court costs. This fee-shifting is one of the strongest deterrents, because it makes stonewalling progressively more expensive. Fees can run into the thousands as proceedings drag on.
Wage Garnishment for Unpaid Support
When the violation is unpaid child support or alimony, wage garnishment is one of the most common tools. A court orders the employer to withhold money from the paying party’s paycheck and send it directly to the recipient. Federal law under the Consumer Credit Protection Act sets the maximum amounts that can be garnished:
- 50% of disposable earnings if the paying party is supporting another spouse or child
- 60% of disposable earnings if the paying party is not supporting another spouse or child
- An additional 5% on top of either limit if the support payments are more than 12 weeks overdue2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
These are federal maximums. Some states set lower limits, but no state can allow garnishment beyond these caps, and the Department of Labor enforces the protections regardless of which state issued the decree.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act For many noncompliant parties, having money taken before they ever see it removes the option of choosing not to pay.
License Suspension, Passport Denial, and Credit Reporting
Federal and state law create administrative penalties that hit outside the courtroom. Federal law requires every state to maintain procedures for suspending driver’s licenses, professional and occupational licenses, and recreational licenses when a parent owes overdue child support.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement The arrearage thresholds that trigger suspension vary by state, but the mandate is universal. A nurse, electrician, or real estate agent can lose the license they need to legally work.
Passport denial is another federal tool. When a parent owes more than $2,500 in child support arrears, the state child support agency can certify the debt to the federal government, and the Secretary of State will refuse to issue or renew a passport.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 652 – Reports and Data Collection by the Secretary The $2,500 threshold is low enough that a parent missing just a few months of a moderate order can trigger it.
Federal law also requires states to report delinquent child support to consumer reporting agencies, which puts the name, amount owed, and payment history on the noncustodial parent’s credit report.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement Before any reporting, the parent must receive notice and a reasonable opportunity to dispute the accuracy of the information.
Asset Seizure and Property Transfers
When the decree requires a financial payment and the noncompliant party won’t pay, a court can issue a writ of execution directing law enforcement to seize non-exempt property and sell it to satisfy the judgment.7U.S. Marshals Service. Writ of Execution Personal property, real estate, and business assets are all potentially reachable. Bank accounts and wages held by a third party typically require a separate writ of garnishment rather than a writ of execution. Either tool gets the court to the money.
For property transfers the decree already ordered, the court can sometimes act in place of the noncompliant party. A judge might sign a deed for a spouse who refuses to transfer real estate, or order a plan administrator to divide a retirement account directly. These remedies bypass the need for the other person’s signature entirely.
Evidence to Gather Before Filing
Enforcement actions succeed or fail on evidence. Identify the exact provision of the decree that was violated: the specific paragraph, page, or section. Judges want precision, not a general complaint that your ex isn’t following the decree.
What you need depends on the violation:
- Missed support payments: bank statements, payment ledgers, or records from the state child support agency showing the gap between what was owed and what was paid, with specific dates and dollar amounts.
- Parenting time violations: a log of every date the other parent failed to return the child on time, refused a scheduled visit, or ignored the custody schedule. Texts or emails where they explicitly refuse or cancel carry significant weight.
- Property transfer failures: records from the DMV or county recorder’s office showing the title or deed remains in the wrong name despite the court’s order.
Written communications where your ex acknowledged the obligation and refused to fulfill it are powerful. Organize emails and texts chronologically to show a pattern. Screenshots should capture the sender’s name, phone number, and timestamp.
Filing and Serving the Motion
The formal process begins with drafting a motion asking the court to hold the other party in contempt. Depending on the jurisdiction, this may be called a Motion for Contempt, a Motion for Enforcement, or a Petition for Rule to Show Cause. The function is the same: you’re asking the judge to intervene because the other party isn’t following the decree.
The motion should identify which provisions were violated and describe the specific relief you want, such as payment of a defined dollar amount in arrears, a deadline for transferring a piece of property, or makeup parenting time. Vague requests for “compliance” give the judge nothing to work with. Most courts also require a supporting sworn statement, sometimes called an affidavit, laying out the facts and attaching your evidence.
File the documents with the clerk of the court that issued the original divorce decree and pay a filing fee. Fees vary, and many courts offer fee waivers for people who can demonstrate financial hardship. After filing, the other party must be formally served, usually by a sheriff, constable, or professional process server. You cannot serve the papers yourself. Service gives the other party legal notice of the hearing and a chance to respond.
What Happens at the Hearing
Both sides present their arguments to the judge. The central question in most cases is whether the violation was willful, meaning the person had the ability to comply and chose not to. Noncompliance alone is not enough to support a contempt finding.
The Supreme Court underscored this point in Turner v. Rogers, holding that before a court can jail someone for civil contempt over unpaid child support, it must make an express finding that the person has the ability to pay.8Justia U.S. Supreme Court. Turner v Rogers, 564 US 431 (2011) The Court also held that the defendant must receive notice that ability to pay is a critical issue, an opportunity to present financial information, and a chance to respond to questions about their finances. A court that skips these safeguards risks having its contempt order overturned.
A contempt order typically includes both a penalty and a compliance deadline. Civil contempt orders often include a “purge condition,” a specific action the person can take to avoid the penalty. A judge might order 30 days in jail but allow the contemnor to avoid incarceration entirely by paying $5,000 in support arrears within 14 days. The purge condition must be something the person actually has the ability to do; a judge cannot set a purge amount of $50,000 when the person earns $40,000 a year. Meet the purge condition, and the contempt is resolved. Don’t meet it, and the sentence is served.
Defenses Your Ex Might Raise
Not every contempt motion succeeds. The most common defense is inability to comply. A person who genuinely cannot pay because of job loss, disability, or other circumstances beyond their control has a valid defense, but courts look at this skeptically. The burden falls on the person claiming inability, and they need detailed financial evidence, not just their own testimony. Judges look at assets that could be liquidated, whether a new spouse contributes to household expenses, and whether the lifestyle matches the claimed poverty. Showing up in a new car does not help.
Ambiguous language in the decree is another defense. If the decree says “the husband shall transfer the retirement accounts” but doesn’t identify which ones, a court may find the order too vague to enforce through contempt. The fix is to ask the court to clarify the decree first, then enforce the clarified version. An order that is genuinely susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation typically cannot support a contempt finding until it has been made specific.
Whether Bankruptcy Can Wipe Out the Obligation
Some people who owe money under a divorce decree try to escape the debt through bankruptcy. Whether it works depends on what type of obligation is at stake.
Child support and alimony are classified as “domestic support obligations” under federal bankruptcy law, defined as debts in the nature of support owed to a spouse, former spouse, or child.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 101 – Definitions These cannot be discharged in any type of bankruptcy. Neither Chapter 7 nor Chapter 13 will wipe out child support or alimony debt.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
Property settlement obligations, like an equalizing payment where one spouse kept the house and owes the other $50,000, are treated differently. In Chapter 7, these property-division debts also survive discharge.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge In Chapter 13, property settlement debts can potentially be discharged on completion of the repayment plan, because Section 523(a)(15) is not listed among the exceptions to Chapter 13 discharge.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge If your ex owes you a large property equalization payment and files Chapter 13, talk to a family law attorney immediately.
When Your Ex Lives in Another State
Enforcement across state lines is more complicated but far from impossible. The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, adopted in all 50 states, provides a framework for registering a support order from one state in another state where the obligor now lives. You send the order along with supporting documentation to a court in the new state, and once registered it becomes enforceable there as if it were a local order.12Administration for Children and Families. Standard Intergovernmental Child Support Enforcement Forms State child support agencies can assist with registration. The registering state enforces the order using the procedures it would use for its own orders, but it generally cannot modify the original order unless certain jurisdictional requirements are met. For property division enforcement across state lines, the Full Faith and Credit Clause and the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act provide similar mechanisms, though these usually require more attorney involvement than interstate support enforcement.
What Enforcement Will Cost You
Bringing an enforcement action isn’t free. Filing fees vary by jurisdiction, and some courts waive them entirely for child support enforcement. Process server fees typically run between $45 and $100. If you hire an attorney, legal fees will be the largest expense, but courts can order the noncompliant party to reimburse those fees if they’re found in contempt.
Unpaid support obligations also accrue interest in most states, with statutory rates commonly between 5% and 9% annually. Interest accumulates automatically on the arrears balance. Between mounting interest, potential attorney fee liability, and administrative penalties like license suspension, the financial pressure on your ex to resolve the issue keeps growing the longer they wait.