When will a contempt of court charge actually prosecuted?

I routinely advise clients to obtain all of their furniture and personal items PRIOR TO the divorce being granted to avoid this very problem. It is very difficult after the fact to get the return of personal items and furniture. The more time that goes by, the more likely that things disappear, get broken, lost, or misplaced or argued about that it wasn't part of the list of items to be received. Courts also don't like dealing with it. Everyone looks at it as a nuisance. With that being said and done, if there was a specific list of items spelled out  in the divorce decree and your sister still has not received them, she should continue to pursue her contempt motion in court against her ex husband. If the divorce decree simply has a generic sentence that says "her personal items may be returned to her," she is going to have a much more difficult time getting those items returned. You can check the court internet web site (c cap) in Wisconsin for the history of the case and what happened each previous time she has gone to court on this issue. I don't have an explanation for her lawyer's representation of your sister's case, or the relevance of their having personal financial problems and how that remotely affects their representation of your sister's case. Your sister is free to chose another family attorney to take over the case, if she feels her lawyer isn't doing everything they can to help her.