Enforcing Custody and Support Orders in Georgia

Contempt of court

Georgia courts have power to punish for contempt in cases including the disobedience or resistance by a party or any other person to any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree or command of the court (O.C.G.A. § 15-1-4(a)(3)). Custody orders, parenting plans incorporated into a final order, and support orders are court orders, so a parent who does not follow them may face a contempt proceeding.

Two limits are written into that statute. First, no one may be jailed for contempt for failing to pay over money under a court order, when the person denies that the money is in his or her power, custody or control, until a jury trial on that issue (§ 15-1-4(b)). Second, when a gainfully employed person is found in contempt for violating an alimony or child support order, the judge may sentence the person to a diversion center and diversion program if the county has established one (§ 15-1-4(c)).

Enforcing child support

1. A motion in the same case. The court may subject the respondent to terms and conditions to assure compliance and may punish a violation as contempt. A proceeding for compliance is part of the underlying action, and a motion for enforcement is not a new action and does not require a new filing fee (§ 19-6-28(a)).
2. The rule nisi. In a proceeding to enforce alimony or child support by attachment for contempt, the motion and rule nisi may be mailed first-class to the respondent’s last known address with two copies of the notice and acknowledgment form in § 19-6-28(c) and a prepaid return envelope. If the acknowledgment is not received within ten days of mailing, you notify the clerk, deposit the costs, and service is made under § 9-11-4. Those costs are charged to the respondent unless the respondent shows good reason otherwise (§ 19-6-28(b)).
3. The hearing date. A child support contempt motion must be served with a notice containing a date certain for a hearing no later than 30 days from the date of service, unless the court finds good cause for a later date, in which case the hearing may be extended for up to 30 days (§ 19-6-28(b)).
4. Where to enforce. Jurisdiction to enforce a Georgia support order, by contempt or otherwise, lies concurrently in the court that issued it, the court in the county where the person owing support may be found or is employed, and, for in rem proceedings only, the court where property subject to seizure is located (§ 19-6-26(e)).

Other tools the statutes and rules provide:

• License suspension. If the court is satisfied by competent proof that the respondent owes arrears equal to or greater than 60 days of current support, and holds or is applying for a professional, business, driver’s, hunting or fishing license or owns a registered vehicle, the court may order the license or registration suspended or the application denied. The court must first consider evidence of the respondent’s ability and willingness to comply (§ 19-6-28.1(b)).
• Income withholding. Orders for child support generally come with a separate income withholding order, and the obligee is responsible for sending it and the federal Income Withholding for Support notice to the employer (Uniform Superior Court Rules 24.11 and 24.12).
• Uninsured healthcare and child care costs. If a parent does not pay a share of uninsured healthcare expenses within a reasonable time after receiving documentation, or does not pay work related child care costs ordered to be paid separately, the other parent or a nonparent custodian may enforce payment by any means permitted by law. Child support services pursues those amounts only once they are reduced to a judgment in a sum certain (O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(h)(1)(F) and (h)(3)(B)).

Enforcing custody and parenting time

A parent who believes the other parent is violating custody or parenting time terms can ask the court to hold that parent in contempt under § 15-1-4. Georgia law adds rules that shape these cases:

• No change of custody in response. A complaint seeking a change of legal or physical custody may not be made in response to a habeas corpus petition or any other action or motion to enforce a custody order, including a motion for contempt (§ 19-9-23(b)). A request to change custody is a separate complaint.
• Withholding the child blocks your own actions. A physical custodian may not maintain an action against the legal custodian for divorce, alimony, custody, changes in alimony, custody or visitation, or contempt while custody is withheld from the legal custodian in violation of the order. A legal custodian is likewise barred while visitation rights are withheld in violation of the order (§ 19-9-24).
• Attorney’s fees. The judge in a custody action may order reasonable attorney’s fees and litigation expenses paid by the parties in proportions the judge decides (§ 19-9-3(g)). In contempt arising out of alimony or divorce and alimony cases, including contempt of orders involving child custody and visitation, fee awards are discretionary and the court must consider both parties’ finances (O.C.G.A. § 19-6-2(a)).

Appeals in contempt cases

Judgments or orders in child custody cases holding or declining to hold a person in contempt of a custody judgment are among the orders that may be appealed directly (O.C.G.A. § 5-6-34(a)(11)). Appeals in divorce, alimony and other domestic relations cases, including orders holding or declining to hold a person in contempt of an alimony judgment, are taken by application for discretionary appeal (O.C.G.A. § 5-6-35(a)(2)). Which route applies to a particular order is a question for an attorney, and the deadlines are short.

Primary sources

Laws, rules and forms change. Check the current version at the source before you file.

• O.C.G.A. § 15-1-4, contempt power
• O.C.G.A. § 19-6-28, enforcement of support orders
• O.C.G.A. § 19-6-28.1, license suspension
• O.C.G.A. § 19-6-26, jurisdiction to enforce support
• O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(h), additional expenses
• O.C.G.A. § 19-6-2, attorney’s fees
• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-3(g), fees in custody actions
• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-23, actions to change custody
• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-24, actions barred while custody is withheld
• O.C.G.A. § 5-6-34, direct appeals
• O.C.G.A. § 5-6-35, discretionary appeals
• Uniform Superior Court Rules 24.11 and 24.12, income withholding