Judges warn before they act. Your job is to make sure the court remembers.
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Enforcement works differently depending on where your parenting plan came from, and the first step is not the same in both.
If your plan came out of a divorce, it goes back to the circuit or chancery court that entered it, and Attorney Sam Jaber handles those. If you were never married to each other, your plan came from Shelby County Juvenile Court and it goes back there, where Attorney William Young practices.
Juvenile Court
This is the step that catches people. In Shelby County Juvenile Court there is typically an order requiring the parties to mediate any dispute under the parenting plan before the court will take it up. It is not optional, and skipping it wastes a filing.
What you file after that depends on what is actually happening.
Circuit and Chancery
Where the plan came out of a divorce, the filing is a petition for contempt in the court that entered it. There is no mediation prerequisite of the kind juvenile court imposes.
If the other parent is holding the child back because they believe the child is unsafe rather than out of spite, that is a different problem with a different answer. Refusing visitation over safety concerns →
The analysis a circuit judge runs is the statutory best interest framework, the same set of factors that governed the original parenting plan. A pattern of violations is evidence within that framework rather than a separate offense.
If the plan itself no longer fits, that is a different filing. Modification changes the order. Contempt enforces the one you have.
What Judges Actually Do
In both courts, judges warn first. In juvenile court most judges will warn a parent three or four times in open court before doing anything further. In circuit the pattern is similar, and it escalates when the same parent is back in front of the same judge a second and third time.
And if the other parent is about to make a decision about the child rather than break the schedule, waiting on a contempt docket is the wrong tool. A temporary restraining order →
What judges enforce is their own prior written orders. Once a parent has been warned repeatedly and the record shows it, they act.
In less extreme cases, make-up time. In extreme cases, suspending the other parent’s parenting time, or transferring custody outright.
Documentation
Missed and late exchanges have to be documented as they happen, not reconstructed from memory six months later when you finally file.
Use a throwaway paper calendar. Write down every late exchange and every missed one, and write down what reason was given, if any. Handwritten and contemporaneous is worth more than a spreadsheet built the week before a hearing.
Email and text communication. Audio and video recordings where they are lawfully made. The goal is not one bad incident. The goal is a volume of proof that leaves a judge no room to treat this as a disagreement between two difficult people.
Where These Cases Often Go
Judges frequently want to know why a parent is failing to follow an order. Is it drugs? Is it alcohol? A contempt hearing is often the moment to ask the court for testing.
For alcohol the request is usually a PEth test, a blood test that picks up use over roughly the prior month. That is a longer window than most people expect, and a sober weekend does not fix it. For a heavy drinker it runs considerably longer. How alcohol testing actually works in a custody case →
The reciprocity is not a rule. A circuit judge can order one party tested and not the other, and it happens. That cuts both directions, so it is not a reason to assume a request cannot reach you either.
Attorney Fees
Attorney fees can be and often are awarded in enforcement cases in both courts. Whether they actually get paid frequently depends on the other parent’s ability to pay, which is a separate problem from winning the award.
If there are already prior orders awarding fees that were never collected, pursuing those is a narrower and cheaper matter than a full contempt case.
Your Attorney
Sam Jaber · Divorce & Family Law
Attorney Sam Jaber handles parenting plan enforcement arising out of divorce, in Shelby County circuit and chancery court. He has practiced divorce and family law in Memphis for over a decade.
Custody modification → · Child support modification → · About Sam Jaber →
William Young · Of Counsel · Juvenile Court
Attorney William Young handles enforcement in Shelby County Juvenile Court, where the parents were never married. He knows the rules of evidence and procedure cold, which in that building matters more than it should have to.
Enforcement cases in either court turn on the record, and the record starts before you file.
Ex won’t return my child → · Juvenile court → · About William Young →
Common Questions
A petition for contempt, filed in the court that entered the plan. If the plan came out of Shelby County Juvenile Court, there is typically an order requiring mediation of any dispute under the plan before the court will hear it, so expect that step first. In circuit or chancery court there is no comparable mediation prerequisite.
Yes. If your plan came out of a divorce it goes back to the circuit or chancery court that entered it. If you were never married to the other parent, your plan came from juvenile court and it goes back there. The first step differs, and so does the attorney who handles it.
Warn them. Most juvenile court judges will warn a parent three or four times in open court before doing anything further, and circuit judges follow a similar pattern, escalating when the same parent is back a second and third time. What judges enforce is their own prior written orders.
In less extreme cases, make-up time. In extreme cases, suspending the other parent's parenting time or transferring custody. Judges enforce their prior written orders once a parent has been repeatedly warned and the record shows it.
Yes, on a smaller scale. It is generally much less than the amount of time that was actually missed, and the missed time has to be documented. A handwritten paper calendar noting every late and missed exchange, and the reason given, is worth more than a record assembled later.
Enough to overwhelm the court with proof of a pattern. Email and text communication, audio and video where lawfully obtained, and a contemporaneous calendar. Courts have no patience for petty petitions, and the case has to present as genuine frustration with a pattern rather than score keeping.
Attorney fees can be and often are awarded in enforcement cases in both courts. Whether they get collected frequently depends on the other parent's ability to pay, which is a separate problem from winning the award. If prior fee awards were never collected, pursuing those is a narrower matter than a full contempt case.
Think it through first. Judges often want to know why a parent is failing to follow an order, and a contempt hearing is a natural moment to request testing. For alcohol the request is usually a PEth test, a blood test covering roughly the prior two to four weeks. In Shelby County Juvenile Court, asking for the other parent to be tested generally means you are getting tested too, and almost every parent tests positive for marijuana. In circuit and chancery it is less predictable, because a judge there can order one party tested and not the other.
No. Contempt enforces the order you already have. Modification changes it. If the plan itself no longer fits your situation, that is a separate filing with a different standard.
That is a different filing and it is urgent. If the parenting plan originated in that court, an emergency motion for return of the child. If it did not, a petition. Delay works against you, because courts weigh a child's settled circumstances and every week the new arrangement stays in place it looks more like the status quo.
Free consultation. Call and find out what your record actually supports.