Family Law Order Enforcement Attorneys in Austin, TX

What a motion for enforcement can and cannot do

Enforcement is about making someone follow a court order that already exists. It does not rewrite the order. You can ask the court to enforce almost any part of a temporary order or final decree: the possession schedule, child support and medical support, spousal maintenance, the division of property, and the injunctions most decrees include. Under Family Code §157.001, the motion is filed in the court of continuing, exclusive jurisdiction, which is usually the family court that handled your original case. If your divorce was finalized in Travis County and you have since moved to Buda or New Braunfels, the enforcement motion generally still goes back to that Travis County court.

The motion has to be specific. Section 157.002 requires it to identify the exact provision that was violated, describe how the other party failed to comply, and state the relief you want. In a support case it lists the amount ordered, the amount paid, and the arrearage. In a child custody or visitation case it lists the date, place, and time of each missed exchange. A general complaint such as “he is always late” will not support a finding of contempt of court.

If the schedule or the support amount itself no longer fits your family, that is a different kind of case. Changing the terms of an order is a modification of a prior order, and you can join that request with your enforcement motion in the same proceeding (§157.003), which can spare you a second round of hearings.

Collecting unpaid child support and arrears

Every child support payment that is not made on time becomes a final judgment for the amount owed (§157.261). Past-due support accrues 6 percent simple interest per year (§157.265), and once the court confirms the arrearage it renders a cumulative money judgment that keeps accruing interest until it is paid. Unpaid medical and dental support are confirmed the same way.

Depending on the facts, the court can order several remedies at once:

• Income withholding. Under Family Code chapter 158, the employer withholds current support plus an added amount toward the arrears, enough to clear them within two years or an extra 20 percent of the monthly order, whichever is faster (§158.003). Total withholding is capped at 50 percent of disposable earnings (§158.009).
• A child support lien. A lien can attach to real and personal property that is not exempt, including bank accounts, retirement accounts, and insurance proceeds (§157.317).
• License suspension. Under chapter 232, a court can suspend a driver’s license or a professional or occupational license when the parent owes at least three months of support and has failed to follow a repayment schedule (§232.003).
• Contempt. A judge can fine or jail a parent over missed support payments, and each payment proven at the hearing counts as a separate violation.

When the court finds the other parent failed to pay, it must order them to pay your reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs on top of the arrears, unless the judge states good cause for waiving them (§157.167). The parent who owes support can raise a narrow defense: that they truly could not pay, had no property to sell or borrow against, and tried and failed to borrow the money (§157.008). If you want to understand how the monthly amount was set in the first place, our page on how Texas calculates child support walks through the guideline percentages. Court-ordered spousal maintenance can be enforced by contempt as well (§8.059).

Timing matters. A motion asking for contempt over unpaid support must be filed within two years after the child becomes an adult or the support obligation ends, and a motion to confirm the arrears in a money judgment within ten years of that date (§157.005).

Enforcing custody and visitation schedules

Missed weekends and late exchanges are hard on children, and the remedy is built around giving that time back. When the court finds that court-ordered possession or access was denied, it must order make-up time unless the other parent shows good cause (§157.168). The make-up periods must be the same type and length as the time you lost, can include weekend, holiday, and summer time, and must happen within two years of the court’s finding. The parent who was denied time generally chooses when it is used. If the parent denying access has already been held in contempt three or more times for the same child, the make-up time doubles.

The court generally must also order the parent who violated the order to pay your reasonable attorney’s fees and costs (§157.167), and it can suspend that parent’s licenses under §232.003. Contempt, including jail, is available as well. To ask for contempt in a visitation case, the motion must be filed within six months after the child becomes an adult or the right of possession ends (§157.004).

Your records are what make these cases work. Show up at the exact exchange location in your order, even if you expect a no-show. Write down the date, hour, and place of every denial, keep the texts and emails, and bring a witness when you can. If you are unsure what your order actually requires of each parent, our page on conservatorship rights and duties in Texas explains how custody orders are built.

Enforcing the property division in a divorce decree

Property enforcement follows its own rules in Family Code chapter 9, subchapter A. You file a suit to enforce in the court that signed the divorce decree (§9.001), and that court can order the other side to deliver specific property, such as a vehicle, furniture, or an account balance that existed at the time of the divorce (§9.009). If delivery is no longer possible, the court can render a money judgment for the loss (§9.010). There is no jury in these proceedings (§9.005), and the court may award attorney’s fees (§9.014).

Two limits catch people off guard:

• The two-year deadline. A suit to enforce the division of tangible personal property that existed at the time of the decree must be filed before the second anniversary of the date the decree was signed or became final after appeal (§9.003). For future property, such as a retirement benefit that has not yet paid out, the two years run from the date the right to the property matures.
• No second look at the division. An enforcement order can implement or clarify the decree, but the court cannot change who received what (§9.007).

Contempt can enforce an order to deliver specific property or a matured right to future payments. It generally cannot be used to collect an award of money in the nature of a debt, such as an equalization payment owed out of future funds; that is collected through a money judgment instead (§9.012). Retirement accounts are usually divided by a qualified domestic relations order, and the divorce court keeps jurisdiction to sign or correct one (§9.101). For background on how the original split was decided, see our page on dividing community property in a Texas divorce.

When the order is too vague to enforce

A judge can hold someone in contempt only for violating terms that are clear and specific. An order that says exchanges happen “at a reasonable time” or that a vehicle will be transferred “as agreed” often cannot support contempt. The fix is a clarification order (§157.421 for custody and support terms, §9.008 for property). The court restates the unclear provision in specific, enforceable language without changing its substance (§157.423), and it must give the other party a reasonable time to comply before the clarified order can be enforced by contempt (§157.426). A clarification order is not retroactive, so conduct before it was signed cannot be punished under the new wording (§157.425).

Contempt and what the court can order

In a district or county court, the punishment for contempt is a fine of up to $500, up to six months in county jail, or both, for each violation (Texas Government Code §21.002). Criminal contempt punishes past violations. Civil contempt holds a person until they comply, for example by paying a set amount, and the order must state exactly what they have to do to be released (§157.166). A court can also suspend a jail sentence and place the parent on community supervision with conditions such as regular payments, for an initial period of up to ten years (§157.212).

Most parents do not want a co-parent jailed. They want the payments to arrive and the weekends to happen, and a well-prepared motion can lead to an agreed enforcement order with a payment plan and a make-up schedule.

Using the Attorney General’s child support services instead

For unpaid child support, the Office of the Attorney General is the state’s Title IV-D child support agency (§231.001). It can open a case, set up income withholding, and pursue license suspension, and its services are available at little or no cost. The tradeoff is that OAG attorneys represent the interest of the state, not you (§231.109), and the agency does not handle disputes over a divorce property division. Parents often hire a private attorney when they want to control the timing, combine enforcement with a modification, ask for make-up parenting time, or recover attorney’s fees from the other side.

Talking with Key Law Office about enforcement in Austin

Before your consultation, gather the signed order you want enforced, any payment history you have, your log of missed exchanges, and the messages that show what happened. With those in hand, a family law attorney at Key Law Office can tell you which remedies fit, how much time you have under the deadlines above, and whether a clarification or modification should be filed alongside the enforcement motion. Enforcement is one part of our family law practice, and our law firm handles these cases from offices in Austin, Texas, and in Buda, Bastrop, New Braunfels, and Victoria, before the family courts of Travis, Hays, Bastrop, and Comal counties. If you would like to talk it through, you can request a consultation below.