Prepare your case for the committal hearing
Prepare to bring any documents to the hearing that might support your case; for example, copies of the documents you filed to apply to change the order, doctors' notes, pay stubs, or Records of Employment (if you've lost your job). Also write down the names of the people you spoke to about your case and any court dates you have scheduled for your application to change the order so you can report this information to the judge.
Prepare to answer the judge's questions and to prove what you're saying. If you aren't trying to change the support order or the enforcement order, you'll have to prove at least one of these things to avoid jail time:
- You've paid what you owed.
- You can't pay what you owe because something significant that you had no control over has changed since the enforcement order was made (for instance, you might have lost your job or had health problems that kept you from working).
- It would be a "grave injustice" for you to go to jail.
Bring documents that prove you made the payments.
Bring as much information as possible to help explain and prove that there's been a change in your circumstances. This will be the same information described in Step 6, including a Statement of Finances.
This last option is very difficult to prove. You have to show the judge that you've made the best effort you could to pay the support and comply with the enforcement order. The judge will determine whether you were "diligent, acted in good faith, and used all your resources to meet your obligations" (in other words, whether you tried hard enough to pay the support and arrears). If you did everything that could be reasonably expected of you, the judge may decide that it would be a grave injustice to put you in jail.