The FRO Solution Blog

Everday we read about more plant closures and lay offs along the 401 corridor in Southern Ontario. If you experience a job loss or lay off you should immediately consider initiating proceedings to change your support order ( motion to change or vary ). Otherwise, the FRO will continue to enforce the existing order even though your income has been reduced significantly. Your new income could be subject to a 50% deduction. So will your EI benefits. Your tax refund, GST rebates and bank accounts could be seized. Your credit could be affected. Your driver's licence could be suspended. You could even end up in jail. All because you lost your job and didn't promptly go back to court to get your support order changed accordingly.

FRO's statutory powers to suspend your driver's licence are substantial and complex to understand. I recently had a case where the payor went to court in 2004 and obtained a Refraining Order to prevent the FRO from suspending his licence. He obtained the refraining Order on condition that he pay a certain monthly amount and that he initiate a motion to change the original support order and arrears within 20 days. He paid the monies and made a new agreement with the support recipient. The agreement didn't get filed with the Court ( big problem!! ). The parties agreed to pay directly by inter-bank transfer rather than thru FRO, but didn't withdraw from FRO or tell FRO ( another big problem !!! ). Although the payor was up to date with his new agreement with the recipient, the FRO records showed no payments for 2 years and no new varied court order as required by the Refraining Order. In March 2007 the payor learned that his driver's licence had just been suspended. FRO was able to suspend the licence based on the breach of the conditions of the 2004 Refraining Order without having to start the licence suspension process all over again from the beginning. The payor was not entitled to go to Court to get a new Refraining Order to stop the licence suspension.

We receive so many calls from support payors complaining that their kids are over 18, out of school and not living at home. The payor tells FRO " but FRO just doesn't care ! " FRO keeps enforcing. The FRO is not a Court. It doesn't have the authority to make a judicial decision. All the FRO can do is write a letter to the support recipient asking whether he or she agrees that the support obligation has ended or terminated. Until the recipient confirms in writing to FRO that the obligation is over, the FRO is legally obligated to continue to enforce the existing Court Order. Even if the recipient does agree that the obligation has ended for the over 18 " child ", FRO may still be required to continue to enforce the full amount of the existing court order if there are other dependant children included in the support order and the order doesn't break the payments down into a " per child basis. " Most child support guideline orders specify a global amount of support, for ex. $900/m for three children rather than $300/m/child. Only the latter type of order can be adjusted by FRO on the consent of the recipient without the necessity of obtaining a new court order. Although recent amendments to the Family Responsibility and Arrears Enforcement Act attempt to address some of these problem areas these amendments are of limited application. In these cut off date situations support payors should write the FRO and the support recipient seeking acknowledgement of the termination of the support obligation for the particular child as of a specified date and an immediate adjustment and return of overpayment, if any. But don't wait for an answer before obtaining legal advice. Chances are very good that you will need to obtain a court order in any event and all of the time you spend trying to obtain a solution through the FRO is a waste of your valuable time. My office offers a flat retainer arrangement for payors and recipients on most child support termination motions. Please refer to the Retainer Agreement at www. thefrosolution.com or e mail my office for more details.

Just back from Xmas vacation down I-75 to Florida and can't help but notice all those Ontario truckers working non-stop !! back at the office the phone keeps ringing with FRO problems - a trucker who was paying regularly and had reduced his arrears from 15k to $1,500 got a " First Notice of Intention to Suspend Driver's Licence" in Sept/06. The Notice gives the payor 3 options to avoid the suspension by a specified date within 30 days. The Notice was received by ordinary mail and is a computer generated form. Option #1-pay all the arrears; Option # 2 - enter into a repayment plan acceptable to FRO. Detailed Financial Information is required and a proposal form is included. It is noted that if the payment plan is not agreed to within the required ( 30 day ) time period the licence will be suspended. Option #3 - go to Court and obtain a Refraining order preventing the FRO from suspending the licence ( this is not so simple-more in a later blog ) . This trucker sent in repayment plan form ( but none of the other financial documentation ) He made all of his payments as proposed and heard nothing back from the FRO, so he ASSUMED that the payment plan had been accepted. WRONG. On the Thursday before Xmas he received a letter from the MTO confirming that his licence was suspended. Never did get anything from the FRO. After numerous calls and being on hold with the FRO and paying off the balance by telebanking last week he still hasn't got his licence reinstated as of today. The convenient bureaucratic answer would probably be that the First Notice clearly states that unless the proposal is agreed to by FRO then the licence will be suspended. Since they never told him they agreed with the proposal then he shouldn't have assumed that the licence wouldn't be suspended. Right. He's making the payments and sent in the form. They are taking steps which could deprive someone of a livelihood &/or insurance coverage with untold consequences. Holding off the suspension pending receipt of additional documents would be reasonable. At least telling the payor that the proposal was unacceptable or deficient in some way would be reasonable. A counter-offer would be reasonable. But to go ahead and suspend without any reply at all is unconscionable. This trucker was probably driving without a licence for at least a week without knowing it ! All the while he had reasonablly thought that he had resolved the issue. ASSUME NOTHING !!

Ignoring those FRO letters will just bury you ! The FRO has so many powers available to enforce support orders it will make your head spin. They have to follow the legal rules that govern the way in which they can use those powers. Most of those powers ( but not all ) , require that Notice be given by ordinary mail. If you don't open the mail and act accordingly you can lose your rights to protect yourself from the actions of FRO. I have seen thousands of cases where support payors had strong cases that were compromised badly because of the failure to open the letter in a timely way and obtain good legal advice immediately. Licences have been suspended and good jobs lost. Everybody loses !! If you move - change your drivers licence address immediately. FRO is entitled to serve a drivers licence suspension notice by ordinary mail at the payor's MTO address-you can't set aside the suspension based on lack of notice if you didn't change your MTO address when you moved. Open your mail !!!!!!!

The FRO Office has vast resources available and unlimited political support to carry out its statutory mandate: to enforce court ordered and agreed upon support payments. I was part of the original legal team that was hired in 1987 to implement that mandate. I was very wide-eyed and idealistic and worked very hard to help TRY and make the Director's Office an effective and respected part of the family law system in the Central West ( Hamilton centred Region ). I earned the respect of the judge's, practicing bar and the public in the way that I handled FRO cases. Fairness , understanding and respect have always been the fundamental principles that I have employed in my work. The new approach of the FRO does not always utilize these principles. Remember - FRO is bound by Court Orders and Separation Agreements. Change the Order and you can change FRO. That is what this site is all about. A forum for providing information concerning problems people are having with FRO and a means for obtaining a FRO Solution!!

Hi Everyone -

Welcome to my new blog and the first post on "thefrosolution" website. Please visit frequently to see my take on releated news matters and developments that impact the family responsibility office and their actions and judgements.

mjm