anyone's ex actually been sent to jail.....

[hillymum]

Is this a standardised threat of all Judges or has anyone's ex or sbx actually ended up in jail for contempt/none payment of support etc? If jail time wasn't served, what was the punishment for not towing the line?

[Ansley]

I have a few friends who do not receive child support and only one has had their ex go to jail because of it. Most of the time the fathers get away with it by just paying a tiny bit each month and it supposedly shows the court that they are trying.

And as far as punishment other than jail, I have no clue! Thankfully my ex is paying like he should so far...

[laura163]

My father actually went to jail for a few days every few years for refusing to pay child support.  This was back in the 1970's!

[Kwan*Yin]

The judge has threatened it many times but seems to continue to give the man leeway at every hearing. False threats is the name of the game in court.

[turtle2who]

My ex spent time in jail when he stopped paying his first wife because she was denying him visitation. We are in CT. I imagine it differs by state.

[hillymum]

I wonder how long it wold be before I was put in jail if I stopped letting him see the kids......

[insidevoice]

Well, it's been over 7 years and he was over 75K in arrears.... nothing.  Not  even a slap on the wrist. 

[sunflowers]

My ex has been arrested several times for non-payment.  He wasn't picked up on the bench warrent for non-payment- it was just the charge they threw at him when stopped for some other offense.

The first few times he got someone to bond him out and that satisfied the purge.  The last time, nobody would post bail so they held him overnight and he plead poverty.  They let him go without any purge amount.  Apparently, you cannot hold someone in jail for non-payment of CS if they can't pay it.  That would harken back to debtors prison and is a form of cruel and unusual punishment.

[FiveLittleMonkeys]

My ex was never directly jailed, but he did have his driver's license suspended for non-payment of support.  A few months later, he was pulled over for speeding, the officer saw that he was driving on a suspended license, and arrested him for that.  

[Phoenix~Mama]

A guy I went to high school with just recently went to jail for non-payment of C/S.  He was "only" $3,000 in arrears.  It does happen.

[princesstutu]

Yep.  He went a few times over the past 10 years.  They just kept him until he could pay $500 bond to get out and that money was applied to his arrearages.  He went to court afterward and the process started, again. 

This only happened b/c with the oldest child, her mother got the child support prosecutor involved.  With me, the county wanted their money from TANF returned to them and so the support prosecutor involved herself.  At the time, he owed less than $2000 and had a history of flaking. 

[The Harpy]

They used to threaten with my ex all the time.

The one time that he did see the inside of a cell was he refused to provide bank statements and income tax reports to prove his income after saying he had no income. The Judge ordered, he refused (Claimed he was enacting the 5th ammendment LMAOOOOO, we live in Canada dude, not USA) and they tossed him in for 4 hours to think on it.

[shelbean91]

My uncle was in jail for a while back in the 80s when he was behind because he was unemployed.  A friend's ex has effectively eliminated all of his visitation b/c he has an arrest warrant in our state - and he lives in another.  If he shows up to get the girls, he'll be put in jail - for about 15k of arrears, I believe.  So, no, not in jail, but as close as you can be, I think.