A father in Chicago has been accused of violating a court order that limited him from exposing his child to any religion other than Judaism. What did he do? During a visitation, he took his 3 year old daughter to a Catholic Church. What is the big deal, you say? Well, he did not stop there. He had her baptized. Witnesses say that he did this just to upset his Jewish ex-wife because he was never a regular church-goer. See the story from ABC here.
Court orders are important. Judges hand out court orders, and like anyone else, they do not like it when their orders are not followed. And, when you do not follow a judge's order, you put yourself at risk of being held in contempt.
When a court hands down an order for you, if you violate the order, you can be penalized for it. Once the other side claims the order has been violated, they can file a Petition for Rule To Show Cause. They are, in effect, reminding the court what its order was, and how, in their opinion, you violated it. Then, the Court can issue the "Rule" which means you must go into court and show why or how you did not violate the Order, or if you did violate the Order, you did it with good reason. The burden of proof in a Rule To Show Cause hearing is "willful and contumnacious." In plain language, you did not violate the Order just because you could, but violated the order with good reason, and not on purpose, or to cause harm, or just to tick off the judge and the other side.
If the judge decides that you did this on purpose, with intent to harm, intimidate, anger, or harass the other side, you will be held in contempt. Then, a contempt hearing will be held, and the judge will decide if you will have to pay attorney's fees for violating the court order, and can also order you to spend some time in jail.
The bottom line is this: when you are involved in a divorce, act as though every move you make will be published on the local front page, and talked about in front of the judge. Why? Because it will be. Get in the habit of thinking before you act. Talk to your attorney regularly about plans for visitation, or dating someone. Be proactive, rather than reactive. Why? Because attorneys are expensive enough. The last thing you want to do is have to pay for your ex-spouse's attorney as well because you wanted to "make a point."
