Why You Should Not Violate Your Judgment of Divorce

The 2nd Department issued a noteworthy decision in December of this past year which has straightened out the complexities involved with contempt applications.  Although the case law has always been very clear, there have been decisions issued which contradict each other, and confuse the issues of contempt. The 2nd Department has cleared up all of the confusion, and broke down the issue of Civil Contempt.  The Court also made it clear that civil contempt does not require a finding of willfulness, unlike Criminal Contempt, which requires a willful violation of the Court Order. The factors required to obtain a finding of civil...