The motion may also include a request that the offending party be held in contempt of court. This is a serious matter, and contempt can be ordered if it is found that the disobeying party intentionally failed to pay, despite an ability to do so. Note that once the support was ordered that that created a presumption the paying party has the ability to pay. However, one can defend against the contempt motion by showing for example that they were fired from their job and no longer have the ability to pay. While they may not be held in contempt if they can prove that they do not have the ability to pay, they will still owe the money that they failed to pay. (and the judge may have to decide if the unemployment or continued unemployment is voluntary).

The offending party should immediately file a motion for modification of support if their ability to pay has decreased, so that the amount of money ordered paid will hopefully not be owed after the filing of the petition to modify support. It should be noted that contempt is not generally speaking available for matters involving equitable distribution of assets and debts. For example, if a party is supposed to pay the other party for their share of marital assets and they fail to do so, that usually is not punishable by contempt, although the party will still be under an order to do what they were originally ordered to do.