Contempt of court is usually a misdemeanor, not a felony. Most criminal contempt charges carry a maximum of six months in jail and a modest fine. Contempt can rise to a felony in three situations: when the contemptuous act is itself a separate felony crime, when a state statute specifically designates certain forms of contempt as felonies, or when a federal judge uses the general contempt power to impose a sentence longer than a year.
The Usual Case: Misdemeanor Contempt
When contempt is prosecuted as a criminal offense, it is most commonly a misdemeanor. The federal statute covering contempts that also constitute separate crimes caps punishment at a $1,000 fine and six months of imprisonment for an individual.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 402 – Contempts Constituting Crimes State caps vary, but most jurisdictions set maximum jail terms of six months or less for ordinary criminal contempt.
These misdemeanor penalties cover the behavior people most often associate with contempt: failing to appear when ordered, disrupting a proceeding, violating a court-imposed condition, refusing to answer questions on the witness stand, or ignoring a subpoena. The conduct challenges the court’s authority, but it does not involve the kind of serious wrongdoing that pushes the charge into felony territory.
When Contempt Becomes a Felony
Felony contempt is uncommon, but it happens through a few recognizable paths.
The Act Itself Is a Separate Felony
The most straightforward route to felony-level punishment is when the contemptuous act is a felony in its own right. Bribing a witness violates the court’s authority, but it is also an independent crime with its own felony penalties. Threatening a juror or destroying evidence under a preservation order works the same way. In those situations, the person can face a contempt sanction and a separate felony prosecution for the underlying conduct.
State Felony Contempt Statutes
Some states have written felony contempt into their penal codes. New York classifies “Criminal Contempt in the First Degree” as a class E felony and recognizes an even more serious “Aggravated Criminal Contempt” charge.2New York State Senate. New York Code PEN 215.51 – Criminal Contempt in the First Degree Statutes of this kind typically target repeat offenders or contempt involving threats of violence, especially in cases arising from domestic violence protection orders.
Federal Judges and the “At Its Discretion” Power
The federal general contempt statute lets a court punish by fine or imprisonment “at its discretion,” without specifying a maximum sentence.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 401 – Power of Court A federal judge could, in theory, impose a sentence longer than a year for egregious conduct, moving the punishment into felony territory. Sentences that long are rare in practice, and once the potential punishment crosses the six-month line, additional constitutional protections kick in.
Civil Contempt Is a Separate Track
One point worth clearing up: civil contempt is not graded as a felony or misdemeanor at all. It is not a criminal charge. Its purpose is to pressure someone into obeying a court order they have violated, not to punish them for past conduct. Common examples include failing to pay court-ordered child support, refusing to hand over documents during a lawsuit, or ignoring an injunction.
The defining feature of civil contempt is that the person held in contempt controls when the sanction ends. Courts often say a civil contemnor “carries the keys of their prison in their own pocket.” If you are jailed for refusing to turn over records, you walk out when you hand them over. If you are fined daily for violating an injunction, the fines stop when you comply.4Legal Information Institute. Contempt of Court, Civil
That does not make civil contempt harmless. Because the confinement ends only when you comply, there is no preset maximum. The Supreme Court has allowed indefinite civil contempt confinement as long as it keeps its coercive purpose.5Justia Law. Mine Workers v. Bagwell, 512 U.S. 821 (1994) In at least one federal case, a contemnor spent more than six years behind bars on a civil contempt finding before a court concluded the confinement had lost its coercive effect and crossed into punishment.
The label a court uses does not control the analysis. A flat, unconditional fine imposed after a contempt finding, with no way to reduce it through compliance, is criminal in character even if the amount is small. Confinement that ends when the person performs a required act is civil.5Justia Law. Mine Workers v. Bagwell, 512 U.S. 821 (1994)
The Six-Month Line and Jury Trial Rights
Once criminal contempt is on the table, the potential sentence determines what protections apply. The Supreme Court held in Bloom v. Illinois that serious criminal contempt is subject to the constitutional jury trial guarantee. The dividing line is six months: if the potential or actual sentence exceeds six months of imprisonment, the contempt is “serious” and the defendant has a right to a jury.6Justia Law. Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194 (1968) Below that threshold, the contempt is “petty” and can be tried by a judge alone.
One wrinkle matters here. When a judge postpones contempt proceedings for multiple acts of misconduct during a trial and then sentences the person afterward, those individual sentences get added together. If the aggregate exceeds six months, the defendant was entitled to a jury trial for the entire proceeding, even if no single act would have qualified on its own.
Criminal contempt also must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The Supreme Court has recognized that “criminal procedural protections such as the rights to counsel and proof beyond a reasonable doubt are both necessary and appropriate” in criminal contempt proceedings.5Justia Law. Mine Workers v. Bagwell, 512 U.S. 821 (1994)
Defenses to a Contempt Charge
A contempt charge is not an automatic conviction. Two defenses do most of the work.
Inability To Comply
Genuine inability to comply with the court’s order is a complete defense. The Supreme Court has said that punishment “in a civil contempt proceeding when it is clearly established that the alleged contemnor is unable to comply with the terms of the order” is impermissible.7Justia Law. Turner v. Rogers, 564 U.S. 431 (2011) This comes up constantly in child support cases: if you truly cannot pay, you cannot be jailed. The difficulty lies in proving the inability is real rather than a refusal dressed up as impossibility.
Inability also defeats criminal contempt. Department of Justice guidance treats “good faith inability to comply with a decree, as contrasted with the refusal to do so” as a defense to criminal contempt.8U.S. Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 775 – Defenses, Inability Versus Refusal to Comply
Lack of Willfulness
Criminal contempt requires a willful, deliberate violation. Federal courts define willfulness as “a deliberate or intended violation, as distinguished from an accidental, inadvertent or negligent violation.”9U.S. Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 769 – Defenses, Negation of Essential Elements If you did not know the order existed when you violated it, or the order was so ambiguous that your interpretation was plausible and made in good faith, those are viable defenses.
What a Conviction Leaves Behind
A criminal contempt conviction can follow you after the sentence is served. Courts have treated criminal contempt adjudications as criminal convictions that carry the usual collateral consequences, including appearing on background checks and affecting employment. Whether a criminal contempt conviction can later be expunged varies by jurisdiction, and some courts treat the adjudication as a unique category that does not count as a “prior conviction” for sentencing in later cases, even while it carries other consequences of a criminal record.
Civil contempt produces no conviction and no criminal record. The sanction ends when compliance happens. The stakes are different, not necessarily lower: indefinite confinement or mounting daily fines are real possibilities, with no guaranteed release date until the court is satisfied.