Civil Contempt Is On The Rise

Civil Contempt of Court is the violation of a court order outside the immediate presence of the court. Most often occurring when someone fails to adhere to an order from the court, which results in injury to another party's rights.

Civil Contempt Motions are on the rise at our practice. As legal norms are more routinely ignored, the frequency of these situations appears to be increasing. This unfortunate trend is becoming more pronounced throughout the legal system. In our firm, we have collective experience in active civil litigation in the metro Atlanta courts since the early 1990s. Yet in the past 2 years, we have seen several situations where lawyers have outright refused to hand over records, even when a Court Order exists requiring that the documents be produced.

Georgia Courts have broad authority to punish contempt. See inter alia O.C.G.A. § 15-6-8(5). The bench book allegedly refers to this broad authority as being “as wide as the plains of salvation”. So why would lawyers, all officers of the Court, routinely choose to ignore Court Orders?

First, there is an increased awareness that the cost and expense of enforcing an Order will militate against seeking a Contempt Motion. There is no guarantee to the client that a Court will necessarily award fees, so that cost could be a few thousand dollars that may or may not be recouped. Moreover, Courts are very busy and are generally unhappy to hear or see litigants that are unable to resolve civil discovery disputes. The presumption is that officers of the court should be able to work this out amongst themselves. So, the bearer of the ill news that the lawyers are stonewalling in discovery, is not favored. Third, these disputes are usually nuanced and complex. They were required to produce 10 years of tax records and instead come forward with 5. Is that worth filing a motion? Or if the Company only produced a condensed version of the QuickBooks, and refuses to produce the supporting documents, does that warrant a contempt hearing?

The overall takeaway is that civility is gradually eroding. Stonewalling of discovery and running out the clock is frequently a successful strategy which encourages this behavior even more. Justice delayed is justice denied, right? Practitioners and Courts should expect more of these motions. We can only hope that the Courts will treat them seriously and bring meaningful consequences to the parties who choose to stonewall.

If you find yourself or your company facing a Civil Contempt Motion, turn to lawyers with experience in handling such matters. At York Gaskill, our knowledgeable civil litigation lawyerscan help you navigate through a complicated court system. Contact our law firm in Gwinnett at 678.697.6789 or send us a message for a consultation.