What Happens When You Fail to Appear in Divorce or Child Custody Court? (2023)

Introduction

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In this weeks video I want to talk some possible consequences if one fails to appear on a family law court date.*

Please read the Disclaimer below:

*This video recording is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as the rendering of legal advice. The viewing of this recording does not create an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship is only formed when you have signed an engagement agreement. We cannot guarantee results. Past results do not guarantee future results. Consult with a licensed attorney for information regarding the specifics of your case.

It's never a good idea to not show up for your court hearing in your divorce or custody case. Especially if you have an interest in what the outcome might be. Now if you don't have an interest in what the outcome might be meaning you don't care one way or the other it's still not necessarily a good idea not to show up.

A lot is going to depend on what type of hearing that you are not showing up for. In some cases if you don't show up for your family law hearing what the court could do is enter what is called a default judgement against you. What that means is that the court could give the other party all the relief that they are asking for.

If the other side is asking for sole custody or sole decision making and their asking to have the majority of the parenting time or they are asking for some outrageous of child support, it is possible that that person could get those things. Especially if you don't show up and make your case and defend whatever it is that you want.

So that's one scenario. Another scenario could be that the court could make orders against you that really prejudice you that is not based in fact or that the other party made up and as a result it could affect your life down the road.

A while back I once represented a man in his divorce proceedings and at some point we parted ways and he decided to represent himself. What he ended up doing was not showing up at a very important court hearing and the court entered orders against him for ridiculously high amounts in spousal maintenance on a monthly basis. We are talking like $6,000 a month.

My former client continued to miss court hearings and continued to ignore the court orders and before everyone knew it, he had amassed in arrears in the amount of $45,0000. And he continued to ignore the court's orders.

What the judge did was issue a civil arrest warrant for him and he was actually arrested and went to jail. He was a good person, a good father, had a well paying job, he was very intelligent so I am not really sure why he made the poor decision not to show up. He was put in jail for this huge amount of arrears and the court set a really high purge amount before he was able to get out of jail.

What that means is he had to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the judge to release him. Somehow he was able to get the money so he was able to get out of jail but it was a really hard lesson for him to learn.

So one, he had pay these these large amounts of alimony and ended up in jail. It is really difficult if the court has entered it's orders and you don't show up in court unless you have a good excuse to get the judge to change the orders or set aside the orders.

I've seen people who ignore the court's orders and they suffer some terrible consequence and they decide they want to do something about this and change whatever it is that the judge previously ordered but at that point it is too late. Because they had their opportunity to be heard and have their say and they just didn't take it.

So I really want you to think carefully before you make the decision to just not show up in your case. Even if you have decided you don't care if the other person gets what they want, think about entering an agreement with that other person. But my advice is don't just not show up for your custody or divorce hearing without letting the judge know you have come up with an agreement.

But if you don't have an agreement, then by all means show up in court and defend your position.

Wendy Hernandez is a family law attorney in Phoenix, AZ and founder of Command the Courtroom which teaches you how to handle yourself in court and achieve the best outcome when representing yourself in your divorce or child custody case.

Download my FREE ‘Child’s Best Interest Checklist’ at www.commandthecourtroom.com

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My Law Firm: www.hernandezfirm.com #custody #custodybattle #childcustody #custodyrights #custodycourt #custodycases #custodylawyers

Content

Hi, it's Wendy Hernandez with command the courtroom in this week's video I want to talk with you about what might happen if you don't show up for a court date.

So first off this should go without saying, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

It's never a good idea not to show up for a court hearing, especially if you have an interest in what the outcome might be.

Now, if you don't have an interest in what the outcome might be, meaning you don't care one way or the other.

It's still not necessarily a good idea not to show up a lot is gonna depend on the type of hearing that you're not showing up for so in some cases, if you don't show up for a hearing what the court could do is enter, what's called a default judgment against you, what that means is that the court could give the other party all of the relief that they're asking for.

So if the other side is asking for sole custody or sole decision making and they're asking to have the majority of the parenting time and they're asking for some outrageous amount of child support, it is possible that that person could get those things, especially if you don't show up and give the court your two cents and defend whatever it is that you want.

So that's one scenario.

Another scenario could be is that the court could make orders against you that really prejudice you that are not based, in fact, that are based on things that the other party made up and as a result, it could affect your life down the road in a while back I represented a man and he was going through divorce proceedings and at some point he and I parted ways and he went on to represent himself and what he ended up doing was not showing up for some very important court hearings and the court entered orders against him for ridiculous amounts of spousal maintenance on a monthly basis.

We're talking like six thousand dollars a month in spousal maintenance and my former client continued not to show up for court hearings.

He continued to ignore the courts orders and before everyone knew it, he had amassed arrears in the amount of $45,000 and he continued to ignore the court's orders.

What the judge then did was issue a civil arrest warrant for the arrest of my former client and he was actually arrested and this this person he was he's a good person.

He was a good father.

He had a great job.

He was very intelligent and I'm, not really sure what happened why he made the decision not to show up, but he was actually put in jail for accumulating this huge amount of arrears and the courts at a really high courage amount before he was able to get out of jail.

So what that means is he had to pay tens of thousands of dollars before the judge would release him so somehow he was able to get the money and he got out of jail.

But that was a really hard lesson for him to learn.

First off because this outrageous amount of spousal maintenance was ordered against him and then, secondly, because he buried his head in the stand and ignored that court order, then he went to jail and it's really difficult once a core interest orders.

If you have waived your appearance, if you haven't shown up for Court it's difficult, unless you have a good excuse to get the judge to change those orders or set aside those orders and I've seen people who put their head into the sand and ignored the court's orders, and then they suffered some terrible consequence and they decided okay, I'm gonna do something about this and I want the judge, just change whatever it is that they previously order ordered.

But at that point it's too late, because they had their opportunity to be heard.

They had their opportunity to have their say and they just didn't.

Take it so on one end of the spectrum is, is the court could enter a default judgment against you? Giving the other party everything that they're asking for and at the other end of the spectrum? Is the court could go so far as to issue arrest warrants for you, incarcerate to you and I'm sure, there's other numerous ways that the court could punish.

Somebody who didn't show up for port and there was a court order to show up so I really want you to think carefully before you make a decision just not to show up in your case, if you have made the decision in your case that it's okay for the other person to have what they want or to get what they want.

Think about maybe entering into an agreement with that other person or a stipulation.

But my advice you would be not to just not show up do something to let the court know and let the other party know that you're in agreement with the other part, with what the other party's asking for and if you're, not in agreement, then by all means do everything you can to defend your position.

So that's gonna.

Do it for this week's video I hope it helped as I always say every week, if you haven't already gone to Facebook, to command the courtroom and liked us, do it now, every week, I post the videos and also subscribe to my youtube channel, because every week, I post, the video on YouTube and if you subscribe, you'll get notified feel free to leave me a comment.

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You.