Clearwater, FL asked in Family Law and Child Support for Florida

Q: Spouse has been in jail for over a month for a court date he was never notified of.

Apparently in 2017 my husband had a court date for missing a couple child support payments. He never received any type of notification. As a result judge sentenced him to 179 days in jail or pay $696 because he didnt appear. He didn't even get a chance to defend himself and let the judge know that our son had died and he took a few weeks off work. I was told that the judge could not sentence him like that that it was in violation of his 14th Amendment Right to Due Process. That he was not properly served notice to appear in court. He should have been notified either by certified letter or process server. Is this true? Child Support Enforcement vacated the writ as of Nov 26 2019. So why does he still have to stay in jail? He is currently being held in county we live in because we dont want him sent 200 miles away. Other county judge refuses to let our county do his arraignment and he wont let him appear in front of him via phone. Do I have any options?

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1 Lawyer Answer
Vanessa Vasquez de Lara
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Vanessa Vasquez de Lara
Answered
  • Miami, FL
  • Licensed in Florida

A: This sounds like a contempt issue where the child support purge was set to allow him to "purge" himself of the contempt by paying $696. There are definitely options such as setting a hearing on the purge, filing a motion to set aside the original contempt order, or simply paying the purge amount. Unfortunately, an attorney may be needed for all but making the payment.

Good luck.

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