In another interesting case in the Supreme Court of New York, T.H. v. M.D., a wife found guilty of contempt, for non-compliance of a court order, satisfied her purge amount by serving her full incarceration.  What this means is that she went to jail rather than paying up or doing what she was ordered to do by the court.

 One of the ways to obtain enforcement of orders, particularly payments that need to be made for child support or other payments when someone refuses to pay, is to ask the court to incarcerate the person because they have disobeyed a court order and REFUSE to pay.

  In this case, which is really very telling about the effectiveness of incarceration, this wife served her time in jail rather than making the payments or doing what was required of her in the court order.  The husband was at a loss on how to enforce the order, because she had already spent the time in jail.  He did not receive his payment or obtain satisfaction for having brought an enforcement proceeding and receiving what was due him. 

 In filing a contempt proceeding attorneys expect the payor to come up with money to prevent jail time. In this case, it backfired. Unless the other party can enforce the order in some other way such as garnishing a salary or seizing an asset, they will never get what is their due. Where is the justice in that?