By Attorney Charles E. Liken Jr., Colorado court-appointed Child and Family Investigator. A court order only matters if it's enforced. When an ex ignores the decree — or you've been served with a contempt citation yourself — we handle both sides of C.R.C.P. 107.
Charles E. Liken Jr., Esq. — On the Legal Front Lines · Former Government Investigator, Denver Human Services · Licensed Colorado Attorney · 20+ Years in Private Practice · Former Colorado Deputy District Attorney · Colorado Court-Appointed Child and Family Investigator
Most post-decree contempt fights fall into five buckets. If one of these sounds familiar, you're not alone — and you're not out of options.
Support is a court order, not a suggestion. When months of payments go missing, contempt is the tool that turns an IOU into consequences — and it can travel alongside judgments, interest, and income assignments.
Where The Longmont Law Firm comes in: We reconstruct the arrears to the penny, choose between remedial contempt, judgment + interest, and income assignment (often all three), and ask for your attorney fees.
Maintenance orders are enforceable exactly like support. “Money's tight” is an argument for a modification motion — not a license to stop paying.
Where The Longmont Law Firm comes in: We document the shortfall, cut off the “inability to pay” defense with real financial discovery, and — when you're the one who genuinely can't pay — file the modification that protects you before contempt lands.
Withheld weekends, chronic no-shows, unilateral schedule rewrites. Courts treat interference with parenting time as seriously as unpaid money — sometimes more.
Where The Longmont Law Firm comes in: We choose the right vehicle: a verified parenting-time dispute motion (JDF 1418) for fast make-up time, or contempt when the violations are willful and repeated. Documentation matters in these — we'll show you exactly what to track.
The decree said refinance the house, sign the QDRO, deliver the truck, pay the credit card. It never happened. Every one of those is an enforceable order.
Where The Longmont Law Firm comes in: We enforce transfers with contempt, court-ordered signatures (if a party won't sign title-transfer papers, the court can authorize the clerk to sign: C.R.C.P. 70, JDF 1814), and money judgments — and we draft decrees tight enough that there's nothing to wiggle out of next time.
Protection orders, exclusive-use orders, non-disparagement clauses, mandatory financial disclosures — violations poison the whole case and can carry criminal exposure of their own.
Where The Longmont Law Firm comes in: We move fast: emergency relief where safety is involved, contempt citations where compliance is the issue, and a record that makes the pattern impossible for the court to ignore.
On either side of a contempt citation, timing matters.
Start here: a no-charge 20-minute phone call directly with Attorney Liken.
Remedial contempt exists to force compliance: the court sets "purge" conditions, and the keys to the courthouse door stay in the contemnor's pocket — comply and it ends. Crucially, the court can award attorney fees and costs to the party forced to bring the motion.
Punitive contempt punishes willful defiance — it is quasi-criminal, must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and can mean a fine or up to six months in jail. Choosing which to pursue (or which you're defending against) shapes the entire case.
Served with a citation? Contempt is defensible: present inability to comply, orders too vague to enforce, substantial compliance, lack of willfulness, and defective service all matter — and a well-structured purge plan can keep a bad month from becoming a jail sentence. As a former Deputy District Attorney, Attorney Liken built these cases himself — he knows exactly how the other side thinks.
Watch: Contempt of Court: The BasicsTen plain-English minutes on how a Colorado contempt case actually unfolds — free official Colorado videos, in plain English.Court orders are enforceable. Let's enforce yours.
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