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Unfortunately, there are times when a party is forced to return to court because the other party has not fulfilled their obligations pursuant to a judgment of divorce, a custody or visitation order, a child support order, or a separation agreement. There are a variety of legal mechanism available to ensure compliance.

Section 244 of Domestic Relations Law provides that where a spouse defaults in paying any sum of money as required by the judgment or order directing the payment thereof, or as required by the terms of an agreement, the court shall make an order directing the entry of judgment for the amount of arrears which can be enforced by execution or in any other manner provided by law for the collection of money judgments including the imposition of interest. In cases of child support, a court can order their driving privileges or professional, occupational, business, and recreational licenses suspended. Section 245 of the Domestic Relations Law further provides that such defaults can form the basis of an adjudication of contempt which can be punished by fine or jail where it appears presumptively, to the satisfaction of the court that payment cannot be enforced through normal mechanisms for enforcing money judgment and that non-payment has been willful. Additionally, Section 243 of the Domestic Relations Law can be utilized in cases of default to require the defaulting spouse to post a security for the payment of monies due, or if unavailable to provide a security, to request that a court sequester his or her real property and appoint a receiver so that the rents and profits and other property so sequestered can be applied to the payment of monies due.

Either spouse can appeal a trial court judge's decision to a higher appellate court. There, a party can argue that the trial court judge incorrectly applied the law or abused their discretion in making their decision. Court decisions will turn on the record, that is, the written version of what happened in the trial court.

Unlike decisions after trial, settlement agreements cannot usually be appealed if both spouses agreed to the terms of the settlement. So, if you and your former spouse reach a settlement agreement on issues such as property division and appropriate child support payments, and that settlement agreement is approved and finalized by the judge, you are most likely to be bound by the terms of that agreement. However, notwithstanding the limited available of an appeal, both parties may move to modify the terms of any settlement agreement such as the terms for custody, visitation, child or spousal support if circumstances change. A motion to modify a settlement agreement could become necessary if, for example, one party loses their job through no fault of their own such that they cannot afford to pay the spousal or child support that they originally agreed to pay. Parties may also move to modify a judgments or orders rendered by the court concerning custody and visitation or child and spousal support should circumstances change.