Contempt

A contempt application is used to seek an order from the Court imposing a punishment on a person for contempt of court.

It is used for an application alleging a breach of a parenting order or another order such as a property order.

Before filing a contempt application, you should consider the result you want to achieve. The remedies available from the Court range from the enforcement of an order to the punishment of a person for failure to obey an order. For example, the Court may make an order that:

• arrangements set out in an earlier order are to resume
• compensates a person for lost contact time
• varies an existing order
• puts a person on notice that if the person does not comply with an order, the person will be punished, or
• punishes a person by way of a fine or imprisonment.

If you don't actually want the other party punished (eg. fined or imprisoned) for the breach, but rather want a speedy remedy to ensure the resumption of the arrangements set out in an earlier order, you may be able to file an enforcement application rather than a contempt application.

You should only make a Contempt application if the conduct is serious enough to warrant such a serious charge. For example, if it is alleged that the conduct showed a serious disregard of the person's obligations under an order. 

Next steps

The making an application section has information on filing a contempt application.

Last updated: 16-Apr-2018

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