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U.S. Supreme Court Holds Civil Contemptor Facing Incarceration Requires Procedural Safeguards Absent Counsel
Loaded on Nov. 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2011, page 14
The U.S. Supreme Court held on June 20, 2011 that counsel need not be provided to a person facing civil contempt for failure to pay child support so long as the state has “in place alternative procedures that assure a fundamentally fair determination of the critical incarceration-related question: whether the …
Filed under:
Appointment of Counsel,
Civil Procedure,
Contempt (Civil Procedure),
Family Law.
Location:
South Carolina.
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