How to File a Motion for Contempt in Florida

To file a motion for contempt in Florida, complete Florida Family Law Form 12.960, the “Motion for Civil Contempt/Enforcement,” and file it with the clerk of the circuit court that issued the original order.¹ There is no filing fee.² The motion asks a judge to enforce an existing order the other party has ignored, whether that is unpaid child support, missed alimony, or violations of a parenting plan.

Fill Out Form 12.960

Form 12.960 is available on the Florida Courts website.¹ You will need identifying details from the original order: its title, the date the judge signed it, and the case number. Get these right. The court needs to know exactly which order it is being asked to enforce.

The heart of the motion is the factual description of each violation. Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.615 requires the motion to spell out the essential facts of the alleged contempt.³ “He never pays support” will not do. Be specific and chronological. Identify the exact obligation in the order, the date each violation happened, and the amount or action missed. Something like: “The other party failed to pay the court-ordered child support payment of $500 due on March 1, 2026.”

Gather your evidence before filing. Bank statements showing no deposits, screenshots of text messages acknowledging missed payments, and a written log of denied parenting time all support the motion. The form is your legal filing; the evidence is what wins the hearing. Once the motion is complete, sign it in front of a notary public or a deputy clerk of the court.

File With the Clerk of the Circuit Court

File the completed motion with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the original order was issued. Attorneys must file electronically through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal. Self-represented parties can use the portal or bring paper copies to the courthouse.

Florida law specifically exempts motions for contempt from the standard reopening filing fee, and motions filed solely to enforce child support orders are also exempt.² You should not be charged for either.

Serve the Other Party

After filing, you have to formally deliver the motion to the other party through service of process. Mailing it yourself does not count. Hire the county sheriff’s office or a private process server to hand-deliver a copy of the filed motion and any attachments. Private process servers in Florida generally charge between $40 and $100 for standard local service, with higher fees for people who are hard to locate.

Whoever serves the papers files a Return of Service with the court, creating a record that the other party received legal notice. A judge cannot proceed with a contempt case unless the record shows proper service. Skipping this step or doing it wrong is one of the most common reasons contempt motions stall or get dismissed.

Set the Hearing

Once service is complete, the case moves toward a hearing. You will complete a Notice of Hearing using Florida Family Law Form 12.923 and send it to the other party.⁴ The instructions for the form direct you to make a good-faith effort to coordinate a mutually convenient date and time with both parties and the judge, except in emergencies.⁵ File the original with the clerk and deliver a copy to the other party by mail or in person.

What Happens at the Hearing

At the hearing, the judge takes testimony and reviews evidence. As the moving party, you carry the initial burden. You need to show that a valid, unambiguous court order existed and that the other party failed to comply. In practice, that means presenting the original order and your documentation of the violation.

For contempt involving unpaid support or alimony, the burden shifts in a way that helps you. Florida Statute 61.14 provides that the original support order creates a legal presumption that the person ordered to pay has the present ability to pay.⁶ Once you establish that payments were missed, the other party must prove they lack the ability to pay. You do not need to show they have money. They must show they do not.

The other party can defend by showing the failure to comply was genuinely involuntary. Job loss, serious illness, or disability may support that defense, but the person claiming inability to pay has to bring financial documentation.

What the Judge Can Order

If the judge finds civil contempt, the order has to do two things: impose a consequence and give the person a clear way out. Florida law requires every civil contempt order to include a purge provision spelling out exactly what the person must do to resolve the contempt.³ An order without one is defective and gets treated as a criminal sanction under different procedural rules.

Common remedies include:

Lump-sum payment of the full past-due amount by a specific date.
A payment plan to catch up on arrears while staying current on ongoing obligations.
Make-up parenting time to compensate for denied or missed time-sharing.
Incarceration, but only if the evidence shows the person has the present and immediate ability to pay the purge amount, and the order identifies the specific source of funds the person can pay from.³

Attorney’s Fees

Florida Statute 61.16 gives judges broad discretion to order one party to pay the other’s attorney’s fees and costs in enforcement proceedings, based on the financial resources of both parties.⁷ If you prove contempt, the judge can order the noncompliant party to reimburse your legal expenses. The statute also blocks a fee award to a noncompliant party who had no justification for ignoring the order, even if that party prevails on some issues.

A Parallel Track for Unpaid Support

If your contempt motion involves unpaid support, Florida has a separate enforcement mechanism that runs alongside it. Under Florida Statute 61.14, when a person paying support becomes 15 or more days delinquent and owes more than one periodic payment, the local depository automatically serves notice warning of an impending judgment.⁶ The notice states the amount owed and warns that a judgment will be entered by operation of law, including costs and a service charge of up to $25.

The delinquent party has 15 days after receiving that notice to file a motion contesting the judgment, and the court must hear it within 15 days. If the challenge is denied, the full delinquent amount plus costs becomes a final judgment automatically. That process can run in parallel with your contempt motion, giving you two enforcement tracks at once.

Civil Contempt vs. Criminal Contempt

The process above is for civil contempt, which is designed to force compliance and is the standard route in family law. Criminal contempt exists to punish someone for disobeying the court and follows a different track under Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.830 and 3.840, with stricter protections including the right to appointed counsel. If a judge imposes a sanction without a purge provision, Florida courts treat that as a criminal sanction, which triggers those criminal procedural requirements. Form 12.960 is the civil track. If what you actually want is criminal punishment rather than enforcement, you are in the wrong form.

1
Florida State Courts. Motion for Civil Contempt/Enforcement
2
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 28.241 – Filing Fees
3
Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. Order for Civil Contempt and Incarceration as a Sanction Denied
4
The Florida Courts. Notice of Hearing (General)
5
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. Instructions for Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.923, Notice of Hearing (General)
6
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 61.14 – Enforcement and Modification of Support, Maintenance, or Alimony Agreements or Orders
7
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 61.16 – Attorneys Fees, Suit Money, and Costs