Divorce and Contempt of Court

During divorce court proceedings an individual can be held ‘in contempt of court’. This means that an order has been made against a person, or organisation, that has been disrespectful or disobedient of the court’s authority.

Who Can Be Found to be in Contempt of Court?

The threat of being in contempt of court extends to anyone involved in the court proceedings, such as journalists who are reporting on a court case, claimants, defendants, lawyers, witnesses or anyone else. The most common reasons for being found in contempt of court are:

• Disobedience of a court order
• Publishing material that could jeopardise the prospect of a fair trial
• Disrupting the proceedings in some way, such as heckling from the public gallery, swearing, or allowing your mobile telephone to go off in court (some judges will put someone in the cells if this happens even once in court)

What Happens When Someone is Found in Contempt of Court?

A judge has a wide discretion to determine how to deal with contempt of court. Often an individual will be taken down to the cells, or an organisation (such as a newspaper) will be given a fine.

In divorce proceedings, the behaviour that often leads to a finding of contempt of court is something that one of the parties to the proceedings does. In order to be found in contempt of court, you must be present at the hearing when the judge rules that you are ‘in contempt of court’. To establish whether or not you are in contempt, the judge will have to consider whether you were aware of what the law is, whether you knew what effect your actions (or failure to act) would have on the proceedings, and whether you deliberately meant to disregard the order or break the law.

High Court Proceedings

If your divorce is being heard in the High Court, you could be found in contempt if you fail to attend court despite there having been a subpoena issued to secure your attendance. This could result in the police being instructed to arrest you after the judge orders a ‘bench warrant’.

In reality, you may be able to avoid being arrested and brought to court by police if you write the court a grovelling letter of apology giving reasons as to why you failed to attend.

Failing to Comply With a Court Order

If you fail to comply with a court order, and the order warns you that failing to comply may result in you being sent to prison, proceedings can be brought against you. While it is possible that you could theoretically be sent to prison, it is more likely that you could be fined, or that proceedings are dropped with the right apology.

If there is an injunction in place preventing disclosure of a document, and you go ahead and give it to the press, for example, you could also be found in contempt of court.

For more information on divorce proceedings, read our articles Divorce And Perjury and Divorce And Perverting The Course Of Justice on this site.