Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Contempt of court...criminal offense?

My boyfriend of 6 years has 2 children, ages 11 and 14. In December of 2005, he and his ex settled out of court agreeing that he would have liberal visitation with his son at least every other weekend, and with his daughter as her therapist recommended. In this time, he has had less than 1/2 of his time allowed with his son, and his daughter is now seeing her 3rd therapist because his ex can't find one she's happy with. Therefore, he has seen his daughter for a total of 7 hours since the agreement was made. He went to file papers in the juvenile/domestic court, and as he spoke with the woman there, she told him the paperwork he needed to file was for a criminal offense. She would be subpoenaed for an arraignment hearing, and then they would both be subpoenaed for another hearing. Does this sound right? She wants to go to court for the sake of increasing his child support. (He is paying $450/mo.) For some reason she thinks he received a large inheritance and feels she can get more, so she's all for going. What happens at an arraignment hearing? Will he be notified of the outcome? Should we go ahead now and hire an attorney, or wait for an outcome from the arraignment? Thanks for your help.


Asked on 8/20/07, 9:22 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Contempt of court...criminal offense?

Criminal offense, what criminal offense? What has been described here would seem to involve merely civil rather than criminal matters. (And, arraignments are involved with the latter.)

And, no, "this doesn't sound right", and the clerk must therefore be mistaken.

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Answered on 8/20/07, 9:45 am


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