“The judge already ruled. Why am I still fighting this?”
Because a judgment does not enforce itself. Florida law gives it teeth, and there are specific tools for putting them to work.
You went through the case. You have the order. And your ex is acting as if none of it happened: support unpaid, exchanges missed, the house never refinanced. Rechel & Associates has handled family law enforcement for Tampa Bay families since 1992, and the starting point is always the same. The judgment is binding, and Florida courts have specific tools to back it up.
No. We document the arrears and put the numbers in front of a judge, with the proof already assembled.
Unpaid child support and alimony do not disappear with time. Florida courts can order income withholding straight from a paycheck, reduce the arrears to a judgment that collects interest, suspend licenses, intercept tax refunds, and in serious cases hold a nonpaying party in contempt. The waiting game only works for the person who owes you.
We build the record of every denied exchange and ask the court for makeup time-sharing.
A parenting plan is a court order, not a set of suggestions your ex can edit week to week. When time-sharing is denied or withheld, Florida courts can order makeup time-sharing, hold the withholding parent in contempt, and award attorney fees. What they respond to is a documented pattern, which is why every missed exchange belongs in writing.
Property obligations have their own remedies, and we pursue the ones built for exactly this.
Refusing to transfer property, refinance a home, or pay what the judgment requires does not make the obligation go away. Contempt generally is not the tool for property division, but the law is not out of answers: a money judgment, liens, execution, and garnishment exist precisely for obligations like these. The route is different. The destination is compliance.
We tell you up front whether the motion is worth filing, before you spend anything pursuing it.
That concern is fair, and it is exactly why the first conversation is an honest read, not a sales pitch. Florida courts can award attorney fees in enforcement proceedings, and many settlement agreements have their own fee provisions. And if the truthful answer is that enforcement will not get you anywhere, we will say so and tell you what might.
Post-judgment enforcement is the process of asking a Florida court to make someone comply with an order it has already entered. It covers unpaid child support and alimony arrears, denied or withheld time-sharing, refusal to transfer property or refinance a home as ordered, unpaid attorney fee awards, and any obligation written into a final judgment or marital settlement agreement. Different obligations call for different tools, and filing the wrong one wastes months you have already spent waiting. Each part below explains one piece in plain terms.
For child support and alimony arrears, Florida courts can order income withholding, enter a judgment for the arrears with interest, suspend a driver's license, intercept tax refunds, and in serious cases order incarceration with a purge amount that ends it upon payment.
The primary tool for support obligations. The court must find that the person has the ability to pay and is willfully refusing, and it often sets a purge condition: comply, and the sanction lifts. Contempt is about compelling compliance, not punishing for its own sake.
Contempt generally does not apply to property division. Those obligations are enforced through judgment remedies instead: a money judgment, liens on property, execution, and garnishment. Slower sounding, but they attach to real assets and do not depend on cooperation.
Courts can order makeup time-sharing for the time you lost, hold the withholding parent in contempt, and award attorney fees. And the rule runs both ways: unpaid support never justifies withholding the children, and withheld children never justify stopping support.
If the order still fits reality and is simply being ignored, enforce it. If life has genuinely changed and the order no longer fits, the answer is a post-judgment modification, not a contempt motion that cannot succeed. Choosing correctly is half the work.
Courts act on evidence: payment records, bank statements, message logs, a calendar of missed exchanges. A documented pattern carries more weight than a year of justified anger. Start keeping the record now, before the motion is ever drafted.
File the motion that works, not the one that feels good.
By the time someone calls us about enforcement, they are usually past frustrated. The anger is justified. It is also not a strategy. Our job is to turn it into something a court can act on: a clean record of what the order requires, what actually happened, and the specific remedy that fits.
Sometimes the honest answer is that enforcement is not the right filing. If your ex truly cannot pay, a contempt motion goes nowhere, and a modification may be the truer path. We would rather tell you that in the first meeting than file the motion that feels satisfying and accomplishes nothing.
Since January 1992 this firm has practiced family law exclusively, and enforcement is where that focus matters. Knowing which tool a Hillsborough County judge expects to see for which obligation is the difference between a motion that moves and a motion that sits.
Enforcement is not one motion. Support, time-sharing, and property obligations each have their own tools, and the situations below cover most of what walks through our door.
Income withholding, a judgment for the arrears with interest, license suspension, intercepts, and contempt where the court finds an ability to pay. The record of what was owed and what was paid drives all of it.
Makeup time-sharing for what you lost, contempt for the pattern, and attorney fees for having to come back to court. A documented calendar of denied exchanges is the strongest thing you can bring.
A deed never signed, a refinance never started, a fee award never paid. These are enforced through money judgments, liens, execution, and garnishment: remedies that reach assets directly rather than relying on contempt.
If circumstances have genuinely changed, the honest fix is modifying the order, not enforcing one that no longer fits. We will tell you which side of that line you are on before anything is filed.
Start by pulling together the record: what the order requires, what was actually paid, and when. From there, Florida courts have real tools. An income withholding order takes support directly from a paycheck. The court can reduce the unpaid amount to a judgment that collects interest, suspend a driver's license, intercept tax refunds, and in serious cases hold a nonpaying parent in civil contempt. Which tool fits depends on your order and on your ex's situation, so every case deserves its own look. Bring the records to a consultation and we will walk through the options together.
No. Florida treats support and time-sharing as two separate obligations, and each one stands on its own. A parent cannot withhold time-sharing because support has not been paid, and a parent cannot withhold support because time-sharing has been denied. That rule cuts in both directions. Withholding the children to force a payment does not fix the support problem, and it hands the other side a violation of your own to answer for. The remedy for unpaid support is an enforcement action in court, not the parenting plan.
Civil contempt is the court's way of compelling someone to follow an order they are able to follow. In a support case, the court looks at whether the person has the ability to pay and is choosing not to. If so, the court can impose consequences, often with a purge condition: a specific amount that, once paid, lifts the sanction. Contempt is the primary enforcement tool for support obligations. It generally does not apply to property division, which is enforced through other judgment remedies such as money judgments, liens, execution, and garnishment.
The court has to sort out whether that is true. Contempt requires a finding that the person has the ability to pay, so a genuine inability changes the analysis. If the claim is false, financial records, employment history, and spending patterns can help show it. If it is true, the honest path may be a modification that resets the obligation to something realistic, alongside a judgment for what has already accrued. We will give you a straight read on which situation you are likely in before anything gets filed.
It is possible. Florida law allows courts to award attorney fees in family law enforcement proceedings, and many marital settlement agreements include their own fee provisions for a party forced to go back to court. Whether fees are awarded in any particular case depends on the circumstances, including both parties' finances and how the other side has conducted itself, so no one can promise them in advance. It is a question we look at early, because it changes the practical math of pursuing enforcement at all.
The court has already spoken. Our job is to make sure it counts.
Enforcement work rewards steadiness. The client who arrives angriest is often the one with the strongest case and the weakest file, and the first thing we do is fix the file: the order, the record, the numbers, the pattern. Judges act on proof, and we build motions around it.
Theodore J. Rechel has been licensed since 1990 and founded this firm in January 1992. Attorney Jacob Goss works these matters alongside him. The firm has practiced family law exclusively from the beginning, which means the judgment you are trying to enforce is the kind of order we work with every single day.
And when enforcement is not the answer, we say so. If the other side genuinely cannot pay, or the order itself no longer fits anyone's life, you will hear that from us before you spend anything chasing it. An honest read costs us a motion. It saves you far more.
Schedule a confidential consultation. Bring the order and whatever records you have. We will walk through what is enforceable, which tools fit your situation, and whether enforcement or modification is the right next step.
Every consultation is confidential.
