A man who is in jail because of his failure to pay regular child support found out recently that a court order must be obeyed.

According to a friend, the man was summoned to court because the mother of his child reported that he had refused to maintain his child.

"Some time ago, the woman took my friend to court and an order was made for him to pay a certain sum of money on a weekly basis," the friend explained.

"The child's mother returned to court and lodged a complaint that he had disobeyed the court order, and had more than $80,000 outstanding in child support.

"It is a shock to the relatives and friends of the man that he was summoned to court. He did not have the full amount of money to pay his child's mother.

"He paid a part of the money but, because he did not have all the money, he was taken into custody for disobeying the court order. However, the judge granted him bail, but he is still in custody because he cannot find anyone to bail him.

"My friend is a hard-working man, and sitting in jail is not doing any good for him, his common-law wife, children or even for the woman who took him to court for child support.

"I think the judge should have ordered him to return to court every month until the money was paid. My friend cannot find anyone to bail him and, as a result, is losing money because he cannot go to work," the friend said.

It is a serious breach when someone refuses to obey a court order and severe penalties can be imposed for failure to obey the court order.

If your friend found himself in financial difficulty, he should have gone back to court and asked for the weekly or monthly allowance to be reduced. It is very unfortunate that your friend cannot find anyone to bail him, or to pay the amount owing for child support, so he can be released from custody.

Your friend must have been given another date to return to court. So, on the next occasion, he can ask the judge to reduce the amount in the bail bond because he cannot get anyone to bail him.

'My friend is a hard-working man and sitting in jail is not doing any good for him, his common-law wife, children or even for the woman who took him to court for child support'.