Our profession often forgets that litigants and attorneys may end up behind bars in non-criminal cases. Direct and indirect civil contempt are tools used by the Court to enforce Orders and, in less frequent circumstances, to control a courtroom. The issue of contempt hit every media outlet this year when U.S. District Judge David Bunning jailed Rowan County Clerk of Court Kim Davis after she refused to comply with a court order.

Direct civil contempt occurs in the courtroom before the Judge. In 1888, the United States Supreme Court stated, “‘[f]or a direct contempt the offender may be punished instantly by arrest and fine or imprisonment, upon no further proof or examination than what is known to the judges by their senses of seeing, hearing.’” In re Terry, 128 U.S. 289, 309 (1888).

Indirect civil contempt occurs outside the presence of the Judge. A Court cannot impose indirect civil contempt without providing the alleged contemnor notice and an opportunity to be heard. Dileo v. Dileo, 939 So.2d 181, 183 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006). If the contemnor did not comply with a court order, “the language of the order must be clear and precise, and the behavior of the person must clearly violate the order,” for the Court to make a finding of contempt. Reder v. Miller, 102 So.3d 742, 743 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012). The Court must provide the contemnor the ability to purge the contempt. Alves v. Barnett Mortgage Co., 688 So.2d 495 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). The purge might include paying a fine or compliance with a previous court order. In the case of Rowan County Clerk of Court Kim Davis, her ability to purge was compliance with a previous court order.

Finally, an attorney may be held in contempt for failing to comply with a court order, if the order is directed to the attorney. This is particularly true in discovery situations where an attorney may be in actual possession of the discoverable material. The moral of the story is litigants and attorneys must comply with court orders or face the consequences of a finding of contempt of court.

Celia Thacker resides in Kissimmee, Florida and serves as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Kissimmee. She graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2012. Celia is the 2016 President of the Osceola County Bar Association.