Court order

[suello28]

If I received a court order from a divorce and the plaintiff was ordered to return my vehicle but has not done so, what do I need to do? I do not have the address and have reported the vehicle stolen.

Please help me with this

[Samuel]

Maybe start with contacting the court that issued the order...

[Jim1348]

You reported the vehicle as stolen? I certainly hope you told the officer taking the report ALL of the circumstances surrounding this. We certainly would NOT have taken a stolen vehicle report on this in my area. I hope for your sake nothing bad happens as a result of this and you end up being liable. That would be deemed falsely reporting a crime in my area.

[marinepilot]

Moving this to the Ask-A-Cop section. Please make sure you look where your placing your threads. This one has absolutely nothing to do with Restricted Areas or Supporting Members.

[retdetsgt]

If you're going through a divorce, I would hope you have a lawyer. Contact him/her, that's their job to handle that sort of thing. Doing much on your own will nearly always cause you an intense amount of grief.

Reporting it stolen was not a great idea depending on how the plaintiff has control of the vehicle. If it's in both your names, I would be surprised anyone would take a stolen. If they've always had access to it, it's still a problem for you.

[DeltaV]

I'm also surprised that a stolen vehicle report was taken if the officer was told the whole story. This is a civil issue, not a criminal matter at this point.

Hire a repossession company. I bet they'll find the car.

[mcsap]

If I was the responding officer AND you told me that your claim of theft was based upon the other person failing to obey a court order to return a car over a divorce settlement....I would not have taken a report.

Your only remedy is to contact the judge who issued the original order and let THEM issue a warrant for Contempt of Court.

If the police are unaware of this court order , you need to call them before they arrest the other person because of BAD info you supplied. Meaning you are RIPE to get sued.

[Jim1348]

I enforced a number of Replevin Orders when I was in Civil Process. In my area, that is the type of order you need to get the vehicle back. There is language that directs the Sheriff to ".....use the full force of the county to enforce.....". That language is golden because it literally commands the Sheriff to break a door or window in order to enforce it. I would not enforce a Replevin Order without that language. And sometimes they forgot to put that language in there. Having a Replevin Order without that is sort of like having a Pitbull without teeth! (All bark, but no bite.)

The key with enforcing these is knowing where the vehicle is located, obviously. What was fun was when you knew where the vehicle was. You would go to the door and you knew they were home, but just wouldn't answer the door. They didn't have to, either. Even though I was in civilian clothing, the car was a dead giveaway. I ahd a dark blue Chevrolet Impala. When you looked close you could see the Panasonci Toughbook laptop computer mounted up front. Anyway, they wouldn't answer the door, so I would start a tow truck, locksmith, and a uniformed officer from that jurisdiction to assist. Usually the marked squad arrived first. Sometimes they would come out of the house then, but often not. Then the locksmith or tow truck would arrive. If the locksmith vehicle was marked, there was a greater chance they would come outside now, but some were still stubborn. When both the tow truck and locksmith were there, usually someone comes out by that time. It is funny, but the people that wouldn't turn the vehicle over when they were supposed to, seemed mighty anxious to get their personal property out of that vehicle when they realize it is going on the hook!

[scott715us]

If I received a court order from a divorce and the plaintiff was ordered to return my vehicle but has not done so, what do I need to do? I do not have the address and have reported the vehicle stolen.

Please help me with this

This a civil court order. The car is not stolen. It was given to you by order of the court as part of the marital assets. Contact your attorney and inform him/her that the spouse is not following the court order. The attorney will know what to do. At most it's a court order violation and the judge will issue further orders directly to the spouse. If necessary, the judge can order the car taken by the LE agency. I would advise against attempting to report it stolen.