Many times, litigants involved with their family law court case, do not want their support payments to be enforced by the Family Responsibility Office – but they have no choice.
In Ontario courts, when a person is ordered to pay child or spousal support payments, the support order is automatically filed with the Family Responsibility Office (referred to as FRO). Even during those times when the parties and their lawyers agree that payments shall be made directly between each other, the court will continue to have the order enforced by FRO, as that is the default.
There are ways around this and terminology and/or having a mutual agreement is important. In your Court Order or Consent, the parties can agree to withdraw from FRO enforcement and hae the payments made directly to the recipient via e-transfer or even post-dated cheques for example. It takes the mutual consent of the parties to do so and it is as easy as signing a form and sending it into FRO to let them know you want to withdraw from their enforcement. However, if one party wants FRO to be involved, there really will not be a choice to the other party.
Is having FRO involved a bad thing? Not at all. It really depends on the parties. Not all litigants have a poor relationship with one another, and they can find a way to manage support payments between themselves. In those situations where the payor is unreliable to make a payment or you need the payment garnished from their wages, FRO can become your tool. There are pros and cons to using FRO for enforcing your support payments which we can go over with you to make sure it is right for you. Book a consultation with one of our experienced family law lawyers in Toronto today! We also serve our clients in Markham, Scarborough and Pickering.
