Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

In May, my fiance attended a hearing reference contempt. At that time he paid $1300 to the court direct after he managed to pawn enough personal items to come up with some money to pay for CS he was behind on. At the same hearing the Hearing Officer added additional money for the arrears effective 7/1/13. Due to his employment being seasonal (construction) some weeks during the last 2 months he missed some payments becuase he only worked enough during the week to pay his bills and either skipped or made partial payments towards his CS. His ex-wife has once again has taken him back to court for contempt. He has a hearing in front of the hearing officer again this week.

She made contact with him through a family member yesterday stating that if he took a pic of his payroll checks proving that the child support was now coming out of his payroll that she would leave him alone from now on and that she wouldn't show up to the hearing on Friday and he didn't have to go either. My question is should my fiance show up for the hearing anyway?

When he received his notice in the mail, the "motion" paperwork was not attached to the Contempt Order so as of this date he still doesn't know how much he is behind to even attempt to try and catch up. How is he supposed to know what to pay or try and pay, he has nothing that says what the amount is, so he has no idea even if he had the money to take with him to court how much to take. He has not received that type of paperwork at any of the hearings he has attended...she has taken him to court 8 times since their divorce in 2002. Is the court supposed to provide that information for the person who is accused of being in contempt? What can he do to file a complaint with the Court regarding the fact that he is not getting the proper paperwork from the court, that all parties that are supposed to be attending these hearings (representative from Dept of Revenue) are not present?

How do we go about getting a Change in Venue do to the fact that his ex-wife lives in Jacksonville and he now lives in a different county from where the original order took place (Orange County). Neither of them live there anymore and moving the venue to Volusia County would assist both him & her as she wouldn't have to travel as far to any future court dates.


Asked on 9/11/13, 2:53 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

John Smitten Carey and Leisure

1. If neither of you live in the original county where the order was entered then you can apply for change of venue to you (or her) county.

2. You are required to attend all court hearings.

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Answered on 9/11/13, 3:38 am


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