You went through the stress of family court, sat through hearings, filled out paperwork, and finally got your judgment. You thought the worst was behind you. Now the other party is ignoring the orders as if they were optional, and you are back to feeling powerless.
Maybe child support or spousal support is not being paid. Maybe parenting time is constantly disrupted, or a promised property transfer still has not happened. In San Diego, many people find that getting the court order was only half the battle. The other half is figuring out how to enforce that order in a court system that does not automatically step in when someone disobeys.
San Diego family courts handle enforcement problems every day, and California law provides several tools to deal with non-compliance. The challenge is knowing which tool to use, in what order, and how to present your situation so a judge will act. That is the kind of work Gordon D. Cruse, APLC does for parents and former spouses across San Diego, turning paper judgments into real support, parenting time, and completed property division. The sections that follow explain how enforcement really works here and what practical steps you can take next.
Why Your San Diego Family Law Judgment Is Not Enforcing Itself
A family law judgment in California is a set of orders signed by a judge. It can cover child support, spousal support, custody and parenting time, and division of property and debts. Once the judge signs, those orders are binding. They are not suggestions, and they do not expire quickly. However, the court does not have a department that checks whether each person is following every order.
In San Diego, the family court generally acts only when someone asks it to act. That usually means filing a Request for Order, a contempt proceeding, or another post-judgment motion that brings the violation to the judge’s attention. Without that step, the judge typically has no way to know that support is not being paid, visits are being denied, or property is not being transferred. This is why it can feel like the other party is “getting away with it” even though there is a clear judgment in place.
Non-compliance takes many forms. A paying parent may stop or reduce child support without filing a modification. A parent with most parenting time may cancel visits or withhold the child. A former spouse may refuse to sign a quitclaim deed for the family home or stall on dividing a retirement account. These patterns are common in San Diego family cases. The court keeps authority to enforce its orders, but it usually needs a properly presented enforcement request from you or your attorney to do so.
Enforcement is also different from modification. If income has changed or the parenting schedule no longer works, the right step may be to modify the order going forward rather than punish past conduct. If the other party simply will not follow what already exists, enforcement is the focus. A lawyer who regularly handles enforcement in San Diego can help sort out which category your situation falls into and what kind of motion the court expects to see.
Is your court order being ignored? Speak with a San Diego family law attorney—call (619) 431-4523 or schedule your consultation online today.
First Steps Before You Enforce A Family Law Judgment In San Diego
Before you file anything, get your paperwork in order. Start with a complete copy of your judgment and any later orders in your case. In San Diego, most final judgments and orders are available through the family court clerk if you do not have them. You need to know exactly what the court ordered, including dates, amounts, and any conditions, so you can show that the other party is not doing what was required.
Next, gather proof of what has and has not happened. For support, this might mean bank statements, pay stubs showing wage garnishments that stopped, payment app records, or a ledger where you recorded payments received and missed. For custody and parenting time, many parents keep a simple calendar noting dates and times of missed exchanges, late returns, or last-minute cancellations. For property, gather escrow documents, vehicle titles, retirement account statements, or emails showing a refusal to sign or cooperate.
Courts in San Diego pay attention to specifics. A general complaint that “they never pay support” is much weaker than a declaration that lists months of non-payment, amounts due, and attached bank records. The same is true for parenting time. A judge is more likely to respond when presented with a log showing, for example, that out of the last ten scheduled weekends, five were canceled by the other parent with texts attached. Organized evidence helps your Request for Order or enforcement motion land with more impact.
This is also the stage to decide whether you want to involve an attorney now or attempt some steps on your own. For relatively straightforward child support enforcement, the San Diego Department of Child Support Services may be able to help, especially if your case is already open with them. For more complex situations, such as combined support and custody violations or property division issues, working with a firm like Gordon D. Cruse, APLC to plan a stepwise enforcement strategy often saves time and reduces mistakes that can delay hearings or weaken your position.
How San Diego Courts Enforce Support Orders And Collect Arrears
Unpaid child or spousal support is one of the most common enforcement problems in San Diego. When support goes unpaid, it turns into arrears, which function like a money judgment. California law allows a wide range of tools to collect those arrears. Knowing how these tools work in practice can make the difference between spinning your wheels and actually recovering money.
One of the most effective tools is an income withholding order, sometimes called a wage assignment. This is an order that directs an employer to take support directly from the paying party’s paycheck and send it to the appropriate agency or to the other party. If you already have an income withholding order in your judgment, it may need to be served or updated when arrears build up, or the paying parent changes jobs. In many San Diego cases, a properly served income withholding order is the simplest way to restart support.
When support arrears are significant or the paying party has assets, other money collection tools become important. A party owed support can ask the court for a writ of execution and then use that to levy bank accounts. They can record an abstract of judgment in the county where the other party owns real property, which can put a lien on that property for the amount owed. These steps require careful paperwork, and judges in the San Diego family court expect forms to be filled out correctly and supported by a clear arrears calculation.
Support arrears in California generally accrue interest and are not easily wiped out. Even if years have passed, past-due child support often remains collectible. A lawyer familiar with enforcement can help you prepare a correct arrears statement and choose the right mix of wage withholding, bank levies, and liens for your situation. Gordon D. Cruse, APLC regularly evaluates whether a straightforward wage garnishment is enough in a San Diego case or whether a broader judgment collection strategy makes more sense.
Working With Or Outside The Department Of Child Support Services
The San Diego Department of Child Support Services can assist with child support enforcement in many cases. They can help establish wage withholding, track payments, and take certain collection actions. If you already have a DCSS case, you may see enforcement activity such as garnished wages or intercepted tax refunds. However, their focus is limited to support, and they handle a high volume of cases, so timelines can be longer than many parents would like.
In more complex situations, such as cases that involve both support and custody disputes or property issues, private enforcement through the family court may be necessary, either alongside or instead of DCSS efforts. A private attorney can file a Request for Order tailored to your full situation and may be able to move more quickly on certain remedies, such as liens or contempt. Gordon D. Cruse, APLC understands how to coordinate with DCSS when that is useful and when to pursue additional enforcement options in family court to fully address what your judgment requires.
Enforcing Custody & Parenting Time Orders When The Other Parent Will Not Cooperate
Support problems are painful, but parenting time violations often feel even more urgent. In San Diego, parents frequently report the other parent regularly canceling visits, returning the child late, refusing holiday exchanges, or making unilateral changes to schedules. These behaviors not only disrupt your life, but they can also damage the child’s relationship with you.
Many parents assume that calling the police will solve custody violations. In reality, police usually treat family court orders as civil matters unless there is an immediate safety issue. Officers may write a report or encourage compliance, but they rarely enforce a schedule on the spot. Most meaningful enforcement of parenting orders still happens back in family court through a Request for Order or, in more serious cases, a contempt proceeding.
When considering enforcement, judges in the San Diego family court typically look for patterns rather than isolated incidents. A single late drop off might draw a warning. Repeated, documented violations, such as a parent who refuses half of the scheduled weekends over several months, are more likely to lead to make-up parenting time, orders clarifying the schedule, monetary sanctions, or attorney’s fees. In more extreme or ongoing interference, the court may consider changing custody orders to protect the child’s relationship with the other parent.
To pursue these remedies, you usually file a Request for Order laying out the violations with dates, times, and supporting messages or emails. In your declaration, you explain how the non-compliance has affected your child and your relationship. Judges see many parenting time disputes and tend to respond best to parents who present organized facts and realistic requested relief, not just emotional summaries. A San Diego family law attorney can help you craft requests that fit local judicial expectations, which increases the likelihood of clear, enforceable orders going forward.
Getting Property Division Orders Enforced After Divorce
Property division is another area where non-compliance can quietly stall after a divorce. A judgment might order one spouse to sign a quitclaim deed, transfer a vehicle title, cooperate in selling the former family home, or divide retirement accounts through a separate order. If the other party does not follow through, you may feel stuck, especially if you rely on their signature to complete a transaction.
In California, you can ask the family court to enforce property terms in the judgment rather than starting a new lawsuit. One tool is the appointment of an elisor. An elisor is a person, often a court clerk or another designee, authorized by the judge to sign documents on behalf of a party who refuses to sign. In San Diego, judges may use an elisor to complete a deed, vehicle title, or other document required by the judgment, so you can move forward even if your former spouse will not cooperate.
Some property obligations are essentially money judgments. For example, if your judgment requires an equalizing payment and the other party has not paid, that unpaid amount can often be collected using many of the same tools used for support arrears, such as writs of execution and liens. The facts around property, like equity in a home or balances in retirement accounts, make a big difference in which enforcement tools are practical.
Property enforcement often involves technical paperwork as well as hearings. Retirement division typically requires a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO), a separate document that instructs the plan to divide the account. If your former spouse refuses to cooperate with a QDRO, you may need a court order authorizing one to be prepared and signed despite their objections. Gordon D. Cruse, APLC handles these kinds of enforcement matters by combining knowledge of family court procedures with the practical steps needed to satisfy banks, title companies, and plan administrators in San Diego.
Contempt Of Court In San Diego Family Cases: Powerful But Not Always First Choice
When someone openly defies a court order, many people think immediately about contempt and jail. Contempt of court is a remedy that may be available in San Diego family law cases, but it is not a simple or automatic solution. Understanding what contempt requires can help you decide whether it is the right enforcement path for your situation.
To hold someone in civil contempt for violating a family law order, the court usually must find three things. First, there was a valid, clear order that spelled out what the person was supposed to do. Second, the person knew about the order. Third, they willfully violated it. Vague orders or informal understandings can be difficult to enforce through contempt because the judge must be able to see exactly what was required and how it was not done.
Contempt proceedings also have procedural rules that must be followed closely. In many cases, the alleged violator must be personally served with the contempt papers, and the moving party must list each alleged violation separately. If forms are incorrect or the service is not done properly, the court may dismiss the contempt request without reaching the substance. This is one reason self-represented parties often find contempt more frustrating than other enforcement tools in San Diego.
Potential consequences of contempt can include fines, attorney’s fees, and, in serious or repeated cases, jail time. However, judges generally do not jump to incarceration, especially if other remedies could secure compliance, such as wage garnishment for support or appointment of an elisor for property. Contempt is often used when other methods have failed or when the conduct is especially serious. A lawyer who regularly appears in San Diego family courts can evaluate whether contempt is worth the time and risk for you, or whether a more targeted enforcement approach is likely to achieve faster results.
What Happens If You Missed Deadlines Or Waited To Enforce Your Judgment
Many people put off enforcement because they are exhausted from the original case, worried about conflict, or unsure what to do. By the time they look for information, years may have passed. They fear that it is too late. In San Diego, waiting can create practical challenges, but it does not automatically erase your enforcement options, especially for support.
Under California law, support obligations that were ordered but not paid generally become support arrears. These arrears can often be enforced long after they accrue, and they typically are not discharged easily. Child support, in particular, is treated as a strong obligation, and unpaid amounts frequently remain collectible for many years. Even if your child is now an adult, it may still be possible to pursue unpaid support, depending on the details of your orders.
Money judgments in California, including certain property equalization payments, are enforceable for a substantial period and can usually be renewed before they expire. While you should not assume that enforcement will always be available forever, you also should not assume that a few years of delay have made enforcement impossible. What often changes with time is the quality of your records and the ease of proving what is owed.
Delays can make it harder to reconstruct payment histories or show the full pattern of parenting time violations. Bank records may need to be obtained from financial institutions. Witnesses and documents may be harder to track. Judges may also ask why action was not taken sooner. An attorney can help you organize what evidence still exists, explain your reasons for the delay in a straightforward way, and focus your enforcement efforts on the portions of the judgment where recovery is still most realistic. Gordon D. Cruse, APLC frequently works with San Diego clients who come forward after years of non-compliance and need a clear plan for what to do next.
When To Get A San Diego Family Law Attorney Involved In Enforcement
Some enforcement steps are relatively straightforward. Others are not. Knowing when to involve a San Diego family law attorney can prevent you from investing time and emotion in motions that fail on technicalities or that do not fit what judges are willing to do. Certain warning signs suggest that you should talk with counsel rather than relying entirely on self-help.
If non-compliance has become a pattern, not a one-time issue, it often makes sense to sit down with a lawyer. Repeated missed support payments, ongoing interference with parenting time, long delays in property transfers, or situations where the other party has already ignored court warnings are examples. Safety concerns, high-conflict co-parenting, complex assets, or a case where the other side has an attorney are additional red flags that point toward professional help.
An attorney focused on enforcement can help you in several concrete ways. They can analyze your judgment and later orders to identify which provisions are enforceable and how. They can select the right tools, whether that is a Request for Order, income withholding, writ of execution, elisor appointment, or contempt. They can prepare declarations, attach the right evidence, and present your case in a way that aligns with what San Diego judges expect to see, which reduces the risk of continuances or denials based on avoidable mistakes.
Local knowledge matters. Filing rules, hearing dates, and department procedures at the San Diego family courts can affect how quickly your enforcement effort moves. Gordon D. Cruse, APLC understands these practical details and uses a structured, stepwise approach to enforcement. That means looking at your whole picture, including support, custody, and property, and building a plan that prioritizes what you need most while using the enforcement tools that are likely to be most effective in this county.
Talk With A San Diego Attorney About Enforcing Your Judgment
Having a family law judgment that the other party ignores is one of the most frustrating positions to be in. The good news is that in San Diego, you are not limited to hoping they will change. California law gives you several ways to enforce support, parenting time, and property division, even if years have gone by. The key is using the right tools, in the right order, with the right evidence.
If you have your judgment, a record of how it has been violated, and a sense that you cannot keep living this way, the next practical step is to talk with a San Diego family law attorney who handles enforcement regularly. Gordon D. Cruse, APLC can review your orders, help you understand what is realistically enforceable, and map out a plan to move your case forward instead of staying stuck on paper. You do not have to navigate post-judgment enforcement on your own.
Ready to take action? Call (619) 431-4523 or schedule a consultation online to speak with a San Diego family law attorney about enforcing your judgment.