Heather Quick talks enforcement orders in today’s episode of Women Winning Divorce. She covers the process of Contempt of Court and Enforcement of Order, Custody, Child Support and Alimony along with Divisional Decree Violations.
"Women Winning Divorce" is a radio show and podcast hosted by Heather Quick, CEO and Owner of Florida Women's Law Group. Each week we focus on different aspects of family law to help guide women through the difficult and emotional legal challenges they are facing. Heather brings over 20 years of law experience that advocates and empowers women to achieve happier and healthier lives. Join Heather each week as she discusses family law issues including divorce, custody, alimony, paternity, narcissism, mediation and more. This program was created to provide tips and insight to women with family law issues. It is not intended to be legal advice because every situation is different. Visit us at https://www.womenwinningdivorce.com/ for more resources. Text us at 904-944-6800 for a copy of Heather's Top 5 Divorce Tips. If you have questions or a topic you would like Heather to cover, email us at marketing@4womenlaw.com
Women Winning Divorce
Episode 35
Enforcing Court Orders & Contempt
Julie Morgan:
Welcome to Women Winning Divorce with your host, Heather Quick. Heather brings over 20 years of law experience that advocates and empowers women to achieve happier and healthier lives. Each week we provide knowledge and guidance on different aspects of family law to help lead women through the difficult and emotional legal challenges that they are facing. Listen in as she discusses issues including divorce, custody, alimony, paternity, narcissism, mediation, and other family law issues to provide insight on the journey of women winning divorce. Welcome to the show. I'm Julie Morgan and I'm joined by your host, Heather Quick. How you doing, Heather?
Heather Quick:
I am great. How are you today, Julie?
Julie Morgan:
I'm doing very well. Actually, I need to think of a different way to say hello to you because I realize, "Hey, you know you say that the same way every single time? I don't even know what's happening." I don't know.
Heather Quick:
We just get in a groove. I'll think of something. How about that? I'll see if I can change it up for the next show.
Julie Morgan:
Exactly. Yeah, I know. I need to change it up. I do, I do. So today's show is about enforcement orders. Okay. First of all, let's define that. What is an enforcement order?
Heather Quick:
If you think of enforcement like law enforcement, that means holding somebody accountable to a court order. This whole topic is really about how do you make somebody do what was agreed upon in an order. Either way, whether it was agreed upon or not, eventually it was ordered by the judge. That's why it's so important to have things put into an order because now a judge has ordered you to do this. If you don't, that is our remedy. Go to court and say, they didn't do this. Judge, make them do it. Whatever it may be, which we'll get into.
Julie Morgan:
Okay, got it. Got it. That makes sense when you break it down and think about law enforcement. Alrighty. So in terms of, of course, family law after a divorce is final and everything has been decided upon what happens if one parent does not follow what was agreed upon?
Heather Quick:
Well, and that therein lies what we're talking about today because many times it's difficult and time consuming to enforce the order that is in place. That is generally the remedy that you have, which is you got to go back to court. That's not the ideal answer. That's the only way that we can get them to do it is by going to court. Very often, it needs to be something worth doing. And we'll get into that as we talk about the different things.
Maybe they're supposed to always be there at the exchange at 5:00 PM and they're always late. All right. That's not worth going to court because that's going to be time consuming and money. For that one thing, probably you're going to have to let that go or try to work through it. But when it's money or a substantial amount of time or things that they're not doing, or things that they were supposed to do because of the divorce and they're not, there's not going to be another remedy.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. So it needs to be, well, worth the time.
Heather Quick:
It does. I would say that that's something obviously we talk through with clients because then you do have to weigh it and what is it they're supposed to do and what's the likelihood of our success? That really, only an attorney can tell you as well as the cost that will be involved in doing it. We really have to evaluate all of those things to determine it. Many times, my philosophy is, if we determine that there is enough, well now let's look at everything within the document. Because if we're going to court, we're going to court, so now let's see all the other areas where maybe you wouldn't have individually picked those. But if they're not in compliance with one thing, there's usually multiple things they're not in compliance with.
Julie Morgan:
Ah, so you're really getting your money's worth?
Heather Quick:
Yes.
Julie Morgan:
Okay, that makes sense. So what are the steps? What is the process? Do you just say, "Okay, judge, I need to talk to you." What are the process? I know that's another way you do it, but what's the process of it?
Heather Quick:
The process begins with, you've talked to the lawyer, and you guys have decided to file something.That's how we begin everything, filing something in court. That's the way that we communicate with the judge is in a written motion. I know, just like you said, you're like, can we just call up the judge, send an email? No, it's much more formal than that. That is how we communicate in drafting a motion.
We would draft, say, a motion for contempt or a motion to enforce an order. It just the language and depends on how things are ordered. Those are pretty much interchangeable. We file it. Now sometimes, depending on what it is they might need to be officially served, some things can be sent by mail. We usually serve it because what you're wanting in contempt and enforcement is things to be done as quickly as possible. Which as we know, through doing the show with me for so long, that's not always a guarantee.
We want to look at what are the ways to streamline it. Well, if we have proof of service, they can't say, I didn't get the mail, or another delay. So you serve them and you set a hearing. And if ideally it's just on that issue, then that moves forward in front of the judge and then they have to tell the judge why they didn't comply.
Julie Morgan:
Oh, okay. Are there certain, I guess, things associated with the divorce decree that usually fall into one of these two categories of contempt or enforcement?
Heather Quick:
Usually, you're going to see alimony and child support. Those are going to be, I would say the number one issues because it's financial. There could be some time sharing custody things, but I would say the most common are going to be financially related.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. And to break it down, would that fall under the contempt order?
Heather Quick:
Yes. Because what you hear is, you're in contempt of court. You haven't done what the judge ordered you to do, which it's ordered to pay a certain amount to exchange the children. Maybe you have not given them back. Maybe you're not paying as much as you're supposed to. Things like that.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. Well what would be the opposite? That's just a random thought. What if someone wants to change, let's say, how much alimony is or child support payments? What would be the opposite of this? It wouldn't be contempt, right?
Heather Quick:
That's correct. They would file a modification to change it, and that kind of protects them sometimes. The date they filed, the modification they filed with the court, I lost my job. I have more expenses. I can't pay this. So that amount of money that if they're paying less, they may not have that accrued against them, if that makes sense.
Julie Morgan:
It does. So this could be their way of stopping a contempt order?
Heather Quick:
It usually is, or it's in response many times to a contempt motion. They will file a modification, which then creates a much bigger... It turns it into definitely a bigger proceeding.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. So if it's not financial obligations or custody issues, what about for property? What does that fall under?
Heather Quick:
That is going to be enforcement and not everything is. A lot of times, let's say a property has to be sold and divided as a result of a divorce. That's not contempt when they don't do it necessarily. That does have to go into enforcement and a lot of procedural issues we won't talk about here. But what's important to know is that your attorney advises you of whether or not this is something you can do by contempt or not.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. All right. So your attorney really is going to break this down. This is how this works. This works. And that works really just like everything else we've talked about up to your attorney to explain it all.
Heather Quick:
Yes.
Julie Morgan:
All right. Yeah, because I mean, I wouldn't know anything. I'm thinking it's all contempt. Because when I saw enforcement, I said, "What's that?" Okay.
Heather Quick:
That's where some people say, we've agreed to everything and we're going to do our own divorce. And when you have property or children, this stuff matters. Let's say the house is to be refinanced in six months and if not, it gets sold. You need to specifically handle that language in that divorce to make sure you have the easiest way possible to enforce that.
Julie Morgan:
Yeah, because they could not do it. And if you didn't have the proper language, then it's okay that they didn't do it.
Heather Quick:
Well, yeah. I mean it's just going to be so much harder to make them do it. That's not what you want. You've already been through the whole process and now you have to deal with even more stuff.
Julie Morgan:
Now, when we think about a contempt order, where does the burden of proof lie?
Heather Quick:
The person seeking the contempt has the burden of proof, meaning you're the one who has to prove that your spouse, your ex-spouse, willfully disregarded the order. Meaning they obviously knew there was an order and they are intentionally not doing it.
Julie Morgan:
But isn't it very difficult to prove intention?
Heather Quick:
It is. Where that comes down to is that if we're talking about money, they have to have the ability to pay and they didn't. And that's where it can get really tricky.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. Because you would have to prove that they have the ability to pay.
Heather Quick:
Correct, and you don't always know that.
Julie Morgan:
Even after they filed the financial affidavit during the divorce?
Heather Quick:
Well, things have changed. But yes, you do absolutely look to that, but you don't know usually. What if they lost their job, or whatever. That’s part of the pre-filing investigation. Not that that's in depth, like private investigation, I'm not talking like that. But you need to know. I mean, I tell people like, we have to do a cost benefit analysis. If your ex is completely broke and homeless, we can go get an order, but it's only as valuable as the paper that it's on. So that's important to consider.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. So basically that's where you guys really do your homework. But tell me this, do you ask the client to do their homework before they come to you?
Heather Quick:
Usually they do, and if they've called in. Because sometimes they'll be like, why now? Why are you doing it now? And they're like, well, I think they're about to come into some money. That kind of thing. Or it looks like they're selling their house. So now we might have a reason or an ability to recover the money. Because to me that's really important. I mean, yes, we can go to court on all of it, but I want results for our clients. I guess that's the best way. What are results? The money, the ability to pay.
Plus, you're going to always ask for your attorney's fees to be repaid because you had to go to court just to make them do what they have been ordered to do. We look at all that because if you end up at the end of the day, yay, you won in court, you got an order, he's got to pay this. But he's got no money with which to go after it, there's going to be a letdown for the client. There's not what you would call a debtor's prison. It's not like the judge is going to put him in jail. Now, sometimes yes, but generally no. And again, that doesn't get you any money. Now, it may make you feel better about the whole thing.
Julie Morgan:
Yeah. But for how long would you feel better? You know what I mean?
Heather Quick:
I don't know. I think you feel good for a pretty good time. Way back in the day, I'm sure they still do this, there are hearing officers for child support court and some people show up and they've got a lot of jewelry on. I've had judges say, "All right. Well, you better take that jewelry and sell it because you're going to a holding cell and your bail is going to be the amount that you owe."
That tends to be more for child support. It's going to be harder to get that with alimony, but not impossible. I've certainly been able to achieve that, but they have to have the money or access to it if jail is going to be an appropriate. Because the whole thing is, it's not supposed to be as a punishment, it's supposed to be enticing them, persuading them. Well, you will get out of jail if you pay the amount you owe.
Julie Morgan:
That makes sense. But it seems like it could work as a punishment as well as an-
Heather Quick:
I mean, yeah. Jail is definitely a punishment. Yeah, you're going to jail because I've told you what to do. Usually that's not going to happen on the first time. I don't want anybody listening thinking, "Ooh yeah, we'll go to court. He disobeys. He'll go to jail." It takes time. It does. So it's certainly not something that happens on the first time.
Julie Morgan:
And would jail be extreme?
Heather Quick:
Yes, indeed. Indeed it would. And appropriate in many instances. But it's totally going to be extreme. It's usually listed. When you file a contempt, that's what you're asking the judge to do because they have to be on notice. That's just part of due process.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. Now, we don't have time to talk about that in this segment, but I want to get back to that. You're listening to Women Winning Divorce with Heather Quick, owner and attorney of Florida Women's Law Group. When we return, we're going to talk more about these enforcement orders, custody, child support, and alimony. Stay with us.
Welcome back to Women Winning Divorce with Heather Quick, owner and attorney of Florida Women's Law Group. Heather, when we went to break after the first segment, one of the things that you said was about you had to let them know that jail is a possibility. I thought that that would be something that you ease in there.
Heather Quick:
Again, without getting too deep into the weeds, it's really just putting somebody on notice. When you file a hearing and you're asking the court for something, the way that the law works is, you better let them know ahead of time. These are the things we're asking for and if you don't appear or you could be found to be put in jail, you could be incarcerated as a punishment.
The reason I think that it is important is because when we do family law, it's civil law. It's not criminal court. If you're seeking something that's a little bit more like criminal, there's got to be a little bit of notice on that.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. Alrighty. I was thinking you could show up and say, "Yes, this is what I want, but that's not the case."
Heather Quick:
Correct.
Julie Morgan:
Alrighty. So let's talk about custody, child support and alimony. Of course, that falls under contempt order. So if granted by the judge, there are different ways the court can ensure a payment. How can they do that to make sure I get my money?
Heather Quick:
There's a lot of different ways, and this is part of being creative from the legal side because the one way we think of is garnish wages. So yes, that is absolutely a remedy. Now, many times the court can suspend the driver's license and that's another issue because people drive on suspended license all the time. It doesn't necessarily create a situation where they do pay all the time. Now, if you suspend a business professional license, something like that, that could definitely affect them.
There's also liens on property, seizures of assets. Then of course we talked about the jail time. There are different ways as the attorney to talk about, what is available? What do we know exists? How can we be creative in at least asking the judge to look at this for us.
Julie Morgan:
Is there one way that has proven to be more effective than another?
Heather Quick:
Well, garnishing wages is by far the best because it just happens without their control. One thing that does work well, and so for anybody listening, think about this. If once you get an order and there are some procedural things with how you do it with the state of Florida, but then they'll nab their tax refund if in fact they're working and they have one. That gets people's attention.
Julie Morgan:
Because they think, "Oh yes, I put in all my banking information. I'm going to have this in a couple of weeks and I'm going to have my money." And all of a sudden they don't get it.
Heather Quick:
Now, here's something that really gets people fired up. I know you're going to like this. You're ex is not paying, not doing what he's supposed to. You get this order and then now you can garnish the wages, but also the tax return. They're remarried and they filed jointly. So guess what? It's not just his refund, it's all the refund. So then you really tend to see some action once their new spouse is affected.
Julie Morgan:
Oh, I do like that. Okay, let's talk. But wait. Well, that goes back to once you get married, there are certain things that are joint that's automatic.
Heather Quick:
Nobody is going to give it back as far as that new spouse saying, wait a minute that was all mine. But you filed jointly, you should have been aware. You tend to see compliance after that because that new spouse says why am I getting dragged into this? You need to do what you need to do.
Julie Morgan:
Okay, wait a minute. Okay, they're married. What if they don't file joint? I mean, can you still seize the other persons because they are married?
Heather Quick:
No, no, no. That would be a way around it. So you might only get one bite at that apple and then that next year when they file may not be doing it. So you want to recognize that for sure.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. All righty. Well, we just help someone out just now. This works in all different ways, I tell you. So let's say that the person has violated the parenting plan, but what exactly does that mean if I've violated the parenting plan?
Heather Quick:
That can be so many things. Just ignoring time sharing days, and not showing up to pick up the children, but also maybe not returning them on time. They might say, I wanted them to stay an extra day. That's kind of keeping you from seeing your child. Timeliness tends to always be an issue. But again, that in and of itself is one thing that is not going to be enough unless it's really impacting things. What you'll see or what I've seen the most common in reasons why there's going to be contempt regarding the parenting plan is that the one parent has a substance abuse or alcohol problem. That in and of itself is putting the child in an unsafe environment, or you've got some unsavory people around the child or people that you're not comfortable around your children.
Those are going to be real issues that, again, aren't fixed by money, but you have to get in front of the judge and have some safety measures put into place. Also, if there's any kind of alienation trying to turn the child against the parent, and again, these are all going to be extremely fact-based cases. You're going to have to really have a good handle on the information, really specificity as to everything that's been going on.
Julie Morgan:
All right. So let's kind of break this down because part of what you talked about has to do with time. I mean, you file this contempt order, you can't make someone spend time with someone that they don't want to spend time with. I mean, it's unfortunate. So how does that work?
Heather Quick:
That is rough. I mean, that's hard. Many parents say of course I love being with my children, but I never get a break. They don't do what they are supposed to be doing. The only thing that any lawyer can do is say, we can adjust the child support if he's not exercising time because child support is very much related to how many overnights a parent spends with the child.
If they aren't exercising time, that's really all we can do. We can't force them to see their child or be a good parent, but we can work to have them pay what they should. That tends to be something we do look at. What I've seen in those kinds of situations is they are always scheduling around and I'm really trying, because of course my children want their dad to want to see them and be with them, but they're just not doing it. I would rather modify the parenting plan, so I just don't have to worry about trying to coordinate with him. It depends. Sometimes with extreme circumstances that can happen.
Julie Morgan:
If the parent has a change of heart, it ends up hurting the child in that situation, it seems?
Heather Quick:
It's a hard case no matter what. I mean, those are difficult facts and usually you're not going to see a change in an individual, certainly based on court action as far as being involved with their child. That you just either are or you aren't.
Julie Morgan:
That's bad.
Heather Quick:
It's true though.
Julie Morgan:
So tell me this. Does money possibly make them have a change of heart to where they try a little bit? And if so, do they succeed?
Heather Quick:
Sometimes it can. They'll realize, I'm going to have to pay more if I don't spend time with my kids.I'm going to try to do it. But usually they can't keep that up for long. I mean, parenting is certainly not for the faint of heart and takes a lot of time, dedication. If you don't have it in you to do it, I don't think you can maintain that for very long, no matter how much money is at stake.
Julie Morgan:
It's possible that they may say, "Well, you know what, I'm going to hire someone now." I don't know.
Heather Quick:
Maybe, yeah.
Julie Morgan:
Now another thing you mentioned when you went down the list of how someone could violate the parenting plan and be in contempt is if the parent has a substance abuse or alcohol problem, that's where supervised visits could come into play. Right?
Heather Quick:
It could. There's a lot that can happen with that depending on the severity of the issue. If you find out, generally, it's probably gotten to be pretty bad because you're not living in the house with that person anymore. You only know about this through a third party, which could be your children. Absolutely, depending on their age. Kids are smart. They see stuff and they know what's going on. Or it could be that they've been arrested. Neighbors tell you.
There's a lot of ways. But usually, you find out through a third party. Now you have to see if you know enough? Can we put enough before the judge so that they take action? That, again, is fact intensive. What do you know? Who told you? Can I talk to these people? Because going in front of the court on that kind of issue is beyond important. It is in your child's safety, and the judges are going to take that very seriously, but you really have to determine what evidence do I have.
Rarely, if ever, do I suggest, we are asking children to testify in these kinds of things unless it's quite severe. That's where we really have to look at what are our options on the evidence. But there are a lot of remedies with that. There is definitely supervised visitation. Sometimes the judges will say, you can only have supervised visits until you complete a drug and alcohol program and then come back and show us that you did. Several apps test specifically for alcohol where you have to blow in it a certain number of times during your time sharing with your children.
There's a broad range of remedies for that. That’s why I said that's one that commonly we do go on because one, the child safety is of a concern and there are clear remedies that the court can impose in those situations to really give you relief and protect the children.
Julie Morgan:
One thing you mentioned is not having the child testify. Do you try to keep children out of the court and out of this situation as much as possible dealing with family law and divorce, try to keep them away from the courtroom?
Heather Quick:
The rules are very specific. You have to clearly get court permission way in advance before you bring the child there. There can very well be times depending on the age and maturity of a child and the issues that are going on. But the better remedy would be to have guardian ad litem who can then speak on behalf of the child because children, it does depend on the situation, for them to have to speak badly against one parent or the other, puts them in a difficult position. That's not really ideal at all.
Julie Morgan:
No. Talk about some of the things that you can look back on life and say that that was one thing that affected you the most if that happens to a child, right?
Heather Quick:
Yes, I would think so. I mean, some judges, and that's where one parent is like, they should testify, and the other not. Is it that important that that happens? It's hard to say.
Julie Morgan:
You're listening to Women Winning Divorce with Heather Quick, owner and attorney of Florida Women's Law Group. When we return, we're going to talk more about enforcement, divisional decree violations. Stay with us. Welcome back to Women Winning Divorce with Heather Quick owner and attorney of Florida Women's Law Group. Enforcement orders. All right. Heather, three words that are put together, and I'm thinking, "Why are they together, divisional decree violation?" I looked at this and I said, "Whoa, okay, I got to say that slowly." Alrighty. What is a divisional decree violation?
Heather Quick:
That's when there's a property or an asset that was supposed to be divided as part of the divorce, post-divorce, whatever. Now you're looking to have that enforced and you've got to go to court to do that. But it can't be contempt for those types of things. So it has to be under enforcement.
Julie Morgan:
All right. Now, you defined contempt order, enforcement order. You defined it in the first part of the show. If you guys missed any part of this show, please go to our website, womenwinningdivorce.com and download, subscribe, and listen. Now, you broke it down. Enforcement order, contempt order. But it's still a little fuzzy for me because I look at this and I'm thinking, "Well, property is money ultimately. You know what I mean? Does that make sense?"
Heather Quick:
It absolutely makes sense. That's where it gets into all the legalese and what legally your remedies are. And again, this is something that when you do the divorce yourself, you didn't have the correct language, you didn't have something that allowed you to enforce these things that you agreed upon and these divisions. Now you are going in under enforcement. Sometimes you have to file a completely different lawsuit if it was really messed up.
But basically, you're saying, this order states, my ex has to do A, B, C, D, and he's only done A, and I'm sitting here waiting on the rest. And there's no good reason. Judge, order him to do that within a period of time. Because again, that's the thing. If you don't have a time period, that can make it a little bit more challenging. When we talk about a lot of this enforcement and contempt, I'm certain people are listening thinking, I tried that. It didn't work because the original divorce, the original court order wasn't specific enough and didn't really give me the teeth to go in and enforce it in the way that you'd want. But these are things that you're trying to enforce. They failed to pay an agreed upon debt.
Then you go and get an order at enforcement. Then after that time, you might be able to follow up as contempt, but just again, it draws it out. But at least you have enforcement. Like I said, they're getting the home. They're not selling it. They're not leaving it. Helping you move. They had to move property out and they had a certain amount of time or they haven't transferred over, say, retirement accounts.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. Now what about animals? I thought about that. That's a property.
Heather Quick:
Yes. So, they don't turn over the pet. I will tell you that we had this issue in our office with one of our attorneys. Well, I think the judge gave him one more pass and said, are you seriously not returning this dog? Am I going to have to decide on this? He returned the dog. I mean, people do think that you do not expect in these situations.
Julie Morgan:
All right. Hopefully this is an off topic, but when I think things like returning a pet, is there something deeper there? You know what I mean? Something deeper that they're connecting with the pet in the reason why they don't want to adhere to this arrangement?
Heather Quick:
Well, yeah, I mean that certainly is it. There's also that aspect of it that if that's hurting you, that's making them feel better as well. You can't discount that. Yes, there's a connection there, but it's usually not just that. There is some aspect of you want this and this is now maybe the only control I have over this situation, so this is why I'm doing this. That makes sense.
Julie Morgan:
Yeah, it does. What if my name is on a deed to a house or titles for a car or anything like that? Would that fall under enforcement?
Heather Quick:
Yes, it would. The court can order specific language to retitle property. Again, if done correctly, that can be done. But yes, that would be something. They haven't refinanced something. You're still on a mortgage that they were supposed to do. That can happen a lot.
Julie Morgan:
Actually, you know what, I'm glad you said that because this goes back to something we were talking about earlier and what we're going to get into a little bit of that. So I want to ask you something else. All right. So tell me this. If found in violation of any of the things that we've talked about, what could happen to you?
Heather Quick:
The judge could force the sale, and sometimes when people sue each other outside a divorce in civil court, they get a judgment. That's what they get that says, this person owes you X amount of dollars. Now you have to go collect on that judgment. You can get a judgment by which then you have to go collect on it, which could be through property they have and having that to be sold in order to satisfy the judgment. Sometimes it can't really be on their homestead where they live because that's protected.
But sometimes there can be other property they own. Yes, there can be wage garnishment, and that is also an option. Sometimes they can order that your retirement funds are going to be dispersed to the other person, and that's getting a specific order as to someone else's retirement, which is we call QDRO, which is just the acronym QDRO. Those are lots of different things they can order that home has to be sold.That would be a common one on a home and mortgage, not refinancing.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. But I thought you said that they can't do anything with the homestead.
Heather Quick:
Well, but both of you are on the name. So in divorce court, yes, we can order your house to be sold. If you got a judgment, say for $20,000 against him, you can't really file lien against someone's house. From a homestead, from a creditor, the bank can, the IRS can. But just your regular debt holder, they're not going to get paid out of that, if that makes sense.
Julie Morgan:
Actually, it would put them in a bind even more, and you definitely probably won't get the money then.
Heather Quick:
Correct.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. Alrighty. That makes sense. Something else that I wanted to ask you about that I thought about after the fact that came from segment two, under property liens. Is it possible that someone doesn't even realize that they have a property lien until they may go to sell it and then they realize, "Oh, okay. There was a property lien on that and I can't do anything with this until I make sure that I pay whatever I need to pay."
Heather Quick:
Correct. Very often, yes. They don't know that.
Julie Morgan:
That's sneaky. I wonder how often that's used and how successful it is, because if it's a property that you were not thinking about it at all, and then all of a sudden, you go to sell it, and then you realize, "Oops, can't do that."
Heather Quick:
Correct. Then they go through that whole process. Just like anyone who's ever sold a house and it seems as though there's all these things that arise at 5:00 PM the day before you're supposed to close, and they're like, we're trying to look at this and that, because they're searching the title. Similarly, if there's something else, if it's something where you could attach a lien that would be then searched, yes, that impedes somebody's ability to sell it and move forward, so then obviously they're motivated to pay it off.
Julie Morgan:
Okay. Alrighty. That's what I wanted to ask you. So talk to me in general about contentment. Contentment. All right. Contemp enforcement motions are like the divorce process. How long does it take? Could it be a long time?
Heather Quick:
Well, yes. I mean, just like anything, because there are legitimate ways that things get pushed out, meaning, like I talked about in the beginning, the proper service for things that they've been notified. Many times they are given a period of time with which to comply, so that could be an issue that could delay it. Or just trying maybe not having everything ready at once. Say you're trying to go do this on your own and you don't really have all the information.
It's not as long as the original divorce process, unless for some reason they file something that then gets you put into the whole mediation and all that in a different way. If it's straight contempt or enforcement, I mean, you should be in and out of there in three to six months.
Julie Morgan:
Oh, no, no, no. To me, that's a long time.
Heather Quick:
Well, I know. It is, Julie, but really that is pretty reasonable.
Julie Morgan:
Oh my. Okay. All right. Wait a minute. Okay. And then I think about it's going to cost a lot too.
Heather Quick:
Well, I mean, yeah, if you want relief, you have to pay for your fees, so it does.
Julie Morgan:
But if I am granted what I'm asking for, my ex-spouse will have to pay it. Right?
Heather Quick:
Well, that's ideal. I mean, most of the court, if you have to go to this length to make somebody comply with something they've already been told to do or agreed to do, yes. Your chances of getting reimbursed for your attorney's fees are fairly good. Not guaranteed though. That may be something, but you need to be prepared to pay your attorney's fees. It is always the goal at our office to get your fees reimbursed from the other person without a doubt. But that then depends on the judge and how egregious their behavior was.
Julie Morgan:
Oh boy. All right. So ultimately it would be better if my ex-spouse and I, we had a better relationship and none of this really happens.
Heather Quick:
Well, yeah. I mean that would be ideal, but it's not always possible. But when these things are happening, you want to reach out and prior to going to court saying, you're supposed to do this. And be very specific. Ideally, put that in writing that this is what they haven't done. I would like you to get this done within a reasonable amount of time and being specific, and trying to communicate without court.
Julie Morgan:
Yeah, I know. What I said was a perfect world, and we definitely do not live in a perfect world.
Heather Quick:
No, but it's always worth asking. It really is, because then you look better in the court's eyes.
Julie Morgan:
Ah, I like that. All right. Anything else you want to add?
Heather Quick:
Just that we've talked about a lot, only on the surface, and not everything, as always as it seems, but if you are in a situation where you're wanting to enforce an order, believe that your ex is in contempt, please reach out to us at Florida Women's Law Group because we're certainly here to help you and at the very least, let you understand what remedies you have available.
Julie Morgan:
Well said. Until next time, Heather.
Heather Quick:
Yes, indeed. Until next time. I appreciate you so much, Julie.
Julie Morgan:
Oh, I appreciate you too. Thank you for listening to Women Winning Divorce. We hope you found information to help you navigate your divorce. If you like our show, please take the time to subscribe and provide a five star review. If you need more information, please visit our website at womenwinningdivorce.com, where you will find previous episodes and other helpful content. Join us next week as we continue our journey of Women Winning Divorce.