CONTEMPT OF COURT?

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published August 19, 2025

We always hear about contempt of court and how harsh the penalties can be. But it seems to be a very two-sided sword when it comes to enforcement. Yes, we know that the homeowner in Tampa was jailed for contempt of court, but it all started with brown grass on her property and a little dent in her garage door. Is that really enough to be jailed for contempt of court?

In my opinion it would have never happened if the homeowner would have had the financial means to pay for proper legal representation, but she had, according to various media reports, financial difficulties. As I heard from other owners, the court in Tampa is obviously not very fond of pro-se litigants, leaving the question if the homeowner received proper notice of all upcoming proceedings and was informed of her rights?

On the other hand we read about favorable court rulings for owners against associations (Rulings on records requests serve as a lesson for condo associations), but no contempt of court orders were issued, even if the association plainly ignored these court rulings and just filed useless appeals in order to circumvent these court rulings.

Our judicial system seems to have serious problems and it seems that the outcome of court cases depends more on the judge than on the actual rule of law. Or is the problem caused by the fact that many of these lower court judges are attorneys who failed in private practice and desperately needed a job or the fact that many of these judges worked for law firms and are now dealing with their former “colleagues” showing up as litigants in front of their bench?

Something is very wrong and changes are desperately needed!