The mother, contending that the documentation provided by the father was not sufficient, refused to increase his parenting time, and the father filed for both punitive and remedial contempt of court. the trial court ordered that the father would have an automatic step-up in parenting time after three months, providing he submits documentation showing successful participation or completion of anger management classes and therapy. In Azulay, 1 In re: Marriage of Azulay (Colo.App. For more information, see our contempt of court article in the Colorado Family Law Guide.

And many parenting disputes fall into this category – a one-time (or even multiple-time violations) in the past, which is not really ongoing at the time of the contempt hearing. While a purge clause is straightforward with child support arrears (pay them by a certain deadline), it is harder to order a purge clause for a past violation of an order which is not an ongoing violation. However, the reality is far from simple, and as we just wrote about in a recent blog, not every legal right has a remedy.Īnd in the case of contempt, not only does the court have to find that the party willfully violated the court order, but it must also find that he has the present ability to comply with the order, and therefore include a “purge clause”, establishing what he must to in order to bring himself into compliance. Contempt is one of those areas of family law which seems easy – one party is violating the order, so is found to be in remedial contempt of court.

The time of contempt