Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Re: Contempt of Court

There are not enough facts to answer your question, but this may provide some direction.

First, in general, an order to show cause requires the responding party to appear personally, and not by phone. Appearances by phone are permitted in some instances, and the call is simply put on a speaker phone in the courtroom. The testimony or statements of the person on the phone are transcribed in the same manner as if the person were in the court room. Nevertheless, an order to show cause ordinarily requires a personal appearance, and not an appearance by phone.

Second, I have no idea which court issued the order to show cause, and in which jurisdiction the action is venued -- whether Minnesota or North Carolina. If the action is venued in Minnesota, and your ex-wife is in NC, an order to show cause is more or less meaningless, since the order has no effect outside Minnesota. Similarly, a NC order would have no effect in Minnesota. Moreover, I cannot discern from your question whether your exwife was ever a party to a proceeding in the state that issued the order to show cause.

Assuming the proceeding is in Minnesota, however, and your ex wife was a party to the proceeding in this state, but now lives in NC, an order to show cause issued by a Minnesota court would be of little or no consequence.