Contempt of Court

 

We have elected representatives who are good looking and have a nice family and speak well enough to gather together and make laws for our entire society to obey. As we know anytime you get a group of people together, like a family dinner or a cocktail party, cannot decide on any subject. Check out the school board. Check out the city council. Check out the PTA. Check out the board room.

Still, the law is declared and written down and distributed to all like the 10 commandments.

Obey the law

As wonderful lemmings, we follow the rules until they become obsolete or boring. The elected leaders then listen to the complaints of the public at town hall meetings and write amendments or a brand-new law.

If you decide to disobey a law, from jaywalking to shooting up a school, there are organizations to protect the rest of the public from your bad behavior and will detain you and question you and fine you with a ticket or incarcerate you and possibly kill you.

If you admit to the guilt of breaking the law, you get a mark on the record and move on. If you disagree with the charge, you can come before a judge to plea your case. After hearing your testimony, the judge (and/or jury of your peers) will decide whether the charge will be dismissed or find you guilty to pay the punishment.

What if you don’t show up?

The court can order that you be sequestered or additional fines or order authorities to arrest and place in incarceration.

Contempt of court is an act of disrespect or disobedience towards a court or interference with its orderly process, which can be classified as criminal or civil, and direct or indirect. 

If you have enough funds, you can appeal the court’s decision. Another attempt to plea your case, perhaps to another judge who may have a different interpretation of the law, with new evidence or more charts and figures in the presentation to get you off the hook.

Weeks or months or years of battling the judicial system you case may go up to the Supreme Court of the land. These nine judges must agree on a verdict that will be the final decision. They may be unanimous or have a split decision or send it back to the lower courts to futz around with some more.

While not perfect, this is the system we have chosen to resolve conflicts with our social interaction to maintain order. It is our selection of good vs evil.