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Enforcing Child Support and Spousal Support Orders: The Family Responsibility Office

Pursuant to the Family Responsibility and Support Arrears Enforcement Act, the Family Responsibility Office (“FRO”) was established to ensure that support payments were made between the payor and the recipient.  FRO enforces both support orders issued by the Ontario courts and support obligations as set out in domestic contracts that are filed with the courts. FRO can also enforce support orders issued in another province or country with which it has a reciprocating agreement.

Once a case is registered with FRO, the agency then begins the process of both collecting support payments from the payor and then forwarding the payments to the support recipient.

If support payments are not made, FRO has the legal authority to take enforcement action to recover any monies owed.  Enforcement action can include garnishment of bank accounts, suspension of the payor’s driver’s licence, garnishment of any monies received from the Federal Government (such as income tax refunds, GST rebates, employment insurance, CPP benefits), suspension of the payor’s Canadian passport, and seizing of lottery winnings.  If the support payor has failed to make a support payment for at least six months and FRO has exhausted all efforts to locate the payor, FRO may post personal information and a photograph of the payor on a related website in order to receive assistance from the public in locating the payor.

To avoid such enforcement action, it is in the payor’s best interest to meet his or her support obligations in a timely manner.  If a payor’s financial situation changes, the payor should contact FRO to discuss a possible payment plan.  The payor should also contact a lawyer to find out what his or her options are, including filing a motion with the court to change the amount of support the payor is required to pay as set out in the support order or domestic contract.

For more information about the enforcement of child and spousal support payments, please contact Niren and Associates Family Law Practice at 416 222 4555 or email us at info@divorcesupport.ca.

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2010 Brings Major Changes to Family Law in Ontario

Commencing March 1, 2010, the McGuinty government will be implementing major reforms to a variety of Family Law matters in Ontario.  The reforms have been introduced with the objective of improving the public’s access to justice in family courts.

The following are some highlights of the changes that will take effect under the new legislation:

• Family law litigants will have greater access to legal advice and the opportunity to resolve issues through the use of mediation, arbitration, and collaborative family law
• Steps to family law litigation will be streamlined and simplified
• Steps to obtaining a restraining order have been modified
• Child support amounts pursuant to either a court order or a domestic contract filed with the court may be recalculated by a child support service to reflect updated income information
• Additional evidentiary requirements must now be met when filing an application for custody or access to a child, including an accompanying affidavit containing a proposed plan for the child’s care and upbringing and information regarding the person’s current or previous involvement in any family law and criminal proceedings
• Every person applying for child custody or access who is not a parent must complete and provide to the court the results of a police records check and a children’s aid society report
• Where a person is declared to be the parent of a child, his or her written consent is required to change the child’s surname, if consent cannot be obtained or is refused an application can be made to the court
• Where a person is declared to be the parent of a child, an application can be made to the court to request that the child’s surname  be changed to any surname that the child could have been given at birth
• The definition of “Net Family Property” has been amended to include any contingent tax liabilities when calculating a spouse’s debts and liabilities on the date of  separation
• “Property” is to include the imputed value of a spouse’s interest in a pension plan

Full details of the upcoming reforms are still to be released by the government.

Check back to our blog for further details once the family law changes come into effect on March 1, 2010.

For further information on family law and divorce contact us at info@divorcesupport.ca or call us at 416 222 4555

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Your Child’s Religious Upbringing during Divorce

Religious beliefs or the lack thereof can be at the core of a family’s entire value system. Religion is a passionately debated topic and can be extremely important to each parent. It could create a hefty argument if conflicting beliefs are being pushed on a child that do not mesh with what the other parent wants.

Child Custody is the responsibility and right to make decisions in the important elements involved in a child’s upbringing, such as their schooling, medial treatment and their religion. Custody is not to be confused with access, which is typically what the non-custody parent has. While the parent with custody is obligated to tell the parent with access about certain matters, and the person with access has the right to ask. However, the person with access does not have the right to make these large decisions. Because disagreements with regards to larger issues like these will ultimately be able to be decided by the parent who has custody, a marriage contract might be an option that can mitigate the outcome of a less than desirable plan for the children in the future

In a cohabitation agreement, marriage contract or prenuptial agreement, parents can agree on the religious upbringing of their children, as well as a other important decisions. These types of agreements don’t only lay out the groundwork for financial agreements in the case of a divorce, they can also protect your interests with regards to more important things like religion, which can be very helpful for planning ahead due to the increasing frequency and prevalence of interfaith marriages.

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Cohabitation Agreements for Common Law Couples in Ontario

The definition of a common law relationship in Ontario is that you have either lived with your significant other for three years or you are in some kind of permanent relationship together and have a child. There is no legal paperwork needed to establish a common-law relationship like in a marriage. Some provinces, like Ontario, require 3 years of continuous cohabitation, meaning a short-term breakup can sometimes ruin this continuity. Other provinces have no such requirements.

Couples who live together, or cohabitate, but are not married, whether heterosexual or same sex couples, are not included in the section of Ontario’s Family Law Act that states property accumulated during the marriage must be divided. For one person to make a claim for the division of property or to remain in the matrimonial home, they must be legally married to the person. Common law spouses can also be compelled to testify against each other in court, unlike married couples.

Cohabitation is defined by several factors in the eyes of a judge. Some of these factors include whether or not you were financially interdependent, whether or not you acted as a couple in social settings, whether or not your relationship was intimate, and whether or not you shared some kind of shelter or home.

Common law partners are able to apply for spousal support in the case of the dissolution of the partnership just like a married person. While there is now no set time limit to apply in Ontario (it used to be two years) in other provinces there are limits.

A cohabitation agreement can help protect both parties in a common law situation. It can help prevent litigation and extra costs in the event of the breakdown of the relationship while protecting your assets and setting aside rules for future child support engagements.

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