Florida Contempt & Enforcement Attorney: Making the Other Side Follow a Family Court Order

By Nadia Pazos, Family Law Attorney, Pazos Law Group · Updated June 22, 2026  ·  ← Home

A Florida judgment only protects you if it is followed. When an ex-spouse stops paying support, withholds the children, or refuses to turn over property, the court that entered the order can enforce it — and, in support cases, can use contempt to compel compliance. But Florida draws sharp lines between enforcement, contempt, and what counts as an uncollectible debt. This page explains how each tool works, when jail is and is not on the table, and how an enforcement case proceeds in Miami-Dade.

Enforcement vs. Contempt vs. Modification

People often use these words interchangeably, but Florida courts treat them as three different things:

• Enforcement asks the court to compel compliance with an order that already exists — for example, ordering a party to sign a deed, refinance a mortgage, or hand over property. It does not require proof that the violation was willful.
• Contempt asks the court to use its coercive or punishing power to obtain compliance. In support cases this is the tool that can ultimately reach incarceration, and it carries heightened findings and due-process protections.
• Modification is different in kind: it asks the court to change the order going forward because circumstances have substantially changed. If you want to change what you owe, see our Florida divorce modification page.

In practice, the same filing frequently seeks both enforcement and contempt — Florida provides a standard form for exactly this purpose: the Motion for Civil Contempt/Enforcement, Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.960.

Civil vs. Criminal Contempt

• Civil contempt exists to coerce compliance. Any sanction — including jail — must give the contemnor the ability to end it by complying. As the Florida Supreme Court put it in Bowen v. Bowen, 471 So. 2d 1274 (Fla. 1985), the purge condition is the contemnor’s “key to his cell.”
• Criminal contempt exists to punish a completed, willful affront to the court’s authority. It carries criminal due-process protections and a fixed sanction that cannot be purged by later compliance.

Most family-law enforcement proceeds as civil contempt, because the goal is to get the support paid or the order honored — not to punish for its own sake.

Enforcing Child Support and Alimony

Support is the area where contempt has the most teeth, because Florida treats support differently from ordinary debt. Even after past-due support is reduced to a money judgment, it remains enforceable by contempt: in Gibson v. Bennett, 561 So. 2d 565 (Fla. 1990), the Florida Supreme Court confirmed that converting a support arrearage into a judgment does not strip the court of its contempt power.

The Rule 12.615 findings the court must make

Before holding someone in civil contempt for unpaid support, the court must make specific written findings under Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.615 — that a prior order of support was entered, that the party failed to pay, that the party had the present ability to pay, and that the failure was willful. If the court orders incarceration, it must separately find that the contemnor has the present ability to comply with the purge and state the factual basis. This is the heart of Bowen: civil incarceration is only permitted when the person can actually pay and is choosing not to.

The collection tools available

• Income deduction order — automatic wage withholding under Fla. Stat. § 61.1301;
• A money judgment for arrears, with statutory interest;
• License consequences — suspension of driver, professional, or recreational licenses;
• Interception of tax refunds and certain lump-sum payments;
• A writ of bodily attachment if the obligor fails to appear or comply — after which a Bowen hearing must be held promptly (commonly within 48 hours of arrest) to test present ability to pay; and
• Attorney’s fees and costs under Fla. Stat. § 61.16.

Enforcing Time-Sharing and the Parenting Plan

When a parent withholds the children or repeatedly violates the parenting plan, Florida does not leave the other parent without a remedy. Under Fla. Stat. § 61.13(4)(c), when a parent refuses to honor the schedule without proper cause, the court shall award the wronged parent enough extra (make-up) time-sharing to compensate. The court may also order the offending parent to pay costs and attorney’s fees, complete a parenting course or community service, bear the transportation burden when the parents live more than 60 miles apart, modify the parenting plan, or be held in contempt, among other reasonable sanctions.

Two cautions. “Proper cause” matters — a parent withholding a child over a genuine, documented safety concern stands very differently from one using the children as leverage. And self-help is dangerous: refusing your own time-sharing obligation because the other parent stopped paying support is itself a violation. Support and time-sharing are enforced separately, and one party’s breach does not excuse the other’s.

What Contempt Cannot Reach: Property Debts

There is a firm constitutional limit. Article I, Section 11 of the Florida Constitution prohibits imprisonment for debt. So a pure equitable-distribution obligation — a lump-sum equalizing payment, or one spouse’s share of an asset under Fla. Stat. § 61.075 — is generally treated as an ordinary debt and is not enforceable by contempt. The line the courts draw is between support (enforceable by contempt, per Gibson v. Bennett) and a property settlement (collectible only through the remedies available to any creditor): judgment liens, writs of garnishment, and writs of execution.

Getting this characterization right at the judgment stage matters enormously — how an obligation is labeled and structured can determine whether you will later be able to use the court’s contempt power or be left to ordinary collection.

Attorney’s Fees in Enforcement Cases

You should not have to absorb the cost of forcing someone to obey an order. In enforcement and contempt proceedings the court may award attorney’s fees and costs under Fla. Stat. § 61.16, based principally on the parties’ relative financial resources. Fee awards are common where one party had to return to court simply to obtain compliance, and the time-sharing statute independently authorizes fees against a parent who wrongfully denies time-sharing.

The Enforcement Process in Miami-Dade

An enforcement or contempt action is filed within your existing case, in the circuit that entered the order — in Miami-Dade, the 11th Judicial Circuit:

• File a Motion for Civil Contempt/Enforcement (Form 12.960), identifying the order violated and exactly what was not done.
• Notice and hearing. The other party must receive notice; the court must expressly find adequate notice before proceeding to contempt.
• The movant’s burden first. You establish that a prior order exists and that it was not obeyed.
• Ability and willfulness. For support, the court then determines present ability to pay and willfulness before any contempt sanction, with written findings.
• The order and the purge. A contempt order specifies what the contemnor must do to purge, and — if incarceration is ordered — the present-ability finding that justifies it.

Because the findings are technical and the due-process requirements strict, a defective contempt order is one of the most commonly reversed rulings in Florida family law. Whether you are seeking enforcement or defending against a motion, the details of the findings are where these cases are won or lost.

Frequently Asked Questions

The information on this page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading or sharing this content does not create an attorney-client relationship with Pazos Law Group. Florida law and the application of statutes and case law change over time; please consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific situation.