Practice Area · Post-Decree
Enforcement and contempt.
A court order is only as good as its enforcement. Colorado gives the compliant party real remedies — and gives the accused party real defenses. Which side of that line you're on determines everything about strategy.
The Remedies
More tools than most people realize.
Unpaid support becomes a support judgment as it comes due, may accrue interest, and is enforceable through the full menu of judgment remedies. Income assignments route support straight from the payor's earnings. Contempt proceedings under C.R.C.P. 107 bring the court's own authority to bear. And in appropriate cases the court may award fees and costs to the party forced to seek enforcement — which changes the other side's math considerably. The right tool depends on what you actually want: the money, the compliance, or the precedent that this stops now.
The Strategic Fork
Remedial versus punitive contempt.
Colorado contempt runs on two tracks, and choosing the track shapes the whole proceeding. Remedial contempt seeks compliance: sanctions designed to coerce, with purge conditions the other side can satisfy — pay this, do that, and the sanction lifts. Punitive contempt seeks punishment for defiance of the court, carries a higher burden, and looks more like a prosecution. Most clients think they want punishment; most clients actually want the money and the behavior change. I aim the proceeding at what you actually need.
The Defense Side
Inability is not defiance — if you can prove it.
Contempt requires the ability to comply. A payor who genuinely cannot pay — the business had a real down cycle, the income truly fell — has a defense; a payor who chose not to pay has a problem. The difference is proven with records, not speeches: contemporaneous financials, transparent accounts, and the discipline to have filed for modification when the change hit rather than silently self-adjusting. If cash flow is lumpy because you own a business, the time to build that paper trail is before the hearing, and ideally before the missed payment.
Common Questions
Asked from both sides of the caption.
My ex simply won't pay. What are my options?
Several, and they stack: reduce arrears to judgment with interest, secure an income assignment, pursue contempt with purge conditions, and seek your fees for having to do it. The pattern matters — one late payment is a conversation; a campaign of nonpayment is a case.
Can my ex actually go to jail over this?
Punitive contempt can carry jail, and courts use it for genuine defiance. It's the last tool, not the first — but its existence is why the earlier tools work.
I've fallen behind because my business is struggling. Am I in trouble?
You're in a solvable situation if you act like it: document the downturn, communicate through counsel, and file for modification now — self-adjusting in silence is how sympathetic payors turn themselves into contempt respondents. Courts distinguish can't from won't; help me prove which one you are.
The rest of this chapter.
How a Colorado divorce actually moves: temporary orders, mediation and litigation, privacy, and what happens when an order has to be modified, enforced, or appealed.
- Divorce in Coloradohow the process actually works→
- Mediation & Litigationsettle from strength→
- Privacy & Discretionengineered from the first filing→
- Emergency & Protection Ordersthe automatic injunction, and urgent relief→
- Modificationswhich door you knock on matters→
- Enforcement & Contemptorders are only as good as their enforcementYou are here
- Appealswon at trial, by the record→
- Common Law Marriagewhether a marriage exists at all→
- Legal Separationsame process, different decree→
- Temporary Ordersthe first ninety days, governed→
- Attorney Fees & Costsfee-shifting and the level playing field→
- Protection Ordersthe shield, and the defense against it→
Engagement
Orders mean what they say. Let's make yours mean it.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.