In order to fight Family Responsibility Office (FRO), it is important to understand how it works. Family Responsibility Office (FRO) is the Ontario Government agency that has a mandate of enforcing child and spousal support orders and separation agreements. FRO has many enforcement mechanisms. For example, it can suspend a payor’s driver’s licence or a passport. It can report a payor to the credit bureau. It can garnish wages and federal payments. FRO can even request court to send a payor to jail for up to 6 months for non-payment of support. In this article, we review most common types of enforcement actions taken by FRO that will have to be addressed in court.
Relevant Legislation To Fight Family Responsibility Office (FRO)
There are different legislations governing the work of Family Responsibility Office. It is important that your lawyer knows the applicable legislations to fight Family Responsibility Office (FRO). For example, Ontario legislation that mandates FRO’s work is Family Responsibility and Support Arrears Enforcement Act, 1996, SO 1996, c 31. It governs, among other things, the suspension of the payor’s driver’s licence. Another applicable legislation is Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act, RSC 1985, c 4 (2nd Supp). It mandates actions related to, among other things, the suspension of federal licenses. It includes passports and boat licences. If there is a need to enforce an order registered in a difference jurisdiction, the Interjurisdictional Support Orders Act, 2002, SO 2002, c 13 outlines the applicable procedures.
Suspending Driver’s License
Before FRO (Family Responsibility Office) suspends a driver’s license, the payor receives a notification via mail. It is called a First Notice to Suspend Driver’s Licence.
The First Notice to Suspend Driver’s Licence from gives the payor limited time to take action. Pursuant to section 34 of the Family Responsibility and Support Arrears Enforcement Act, FRO must provide notice. It informs the payor that his or her driver’s license may be suspended. Within 30 days after the day the first notice is served, the payor can do one of the following: (a) the payor can make an arrangement satisfactory to the Director for complying with the support order and to pay the arrears owing under the support order; (b) the payor can obtain an order to refrain under subsection 35 (1) and files the order in the Director’s office; or (c) the payor can pay all arrears owing under the support order.
In order to stop FRO from taking your Driver’s License, you must either strike a deal with FRO or go to court and ask the judge to prevent FRO from taking your Driver’s License. This is called a Refraining Motion. Legislative deadlines are strict, which means you must have your hearing prior to the deadline. Considering long wait times in court and systemic delays, it is imperative for you to hire a competent lawyer as soon as possible and ensure that the lawyer knows this process. In this article we discuss a legal test and other consideration of a refraining motion in more detail.
Suspending Passport
Similar to a Driver’s License suspension, FRO has authority to request Federal Government to take your passport. The process in terms of the notice and your options to seek help in court are similar to the one in Driver’s License suspension (but not the same).
It is important to remember that the applicable legislation regarding the issue of federal licence denials made by FRO (Family Responsibility Office) (which include a payor’s passport, boat licence, etc.) is Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. 4 (2nd Supp.) (the federal legislation, not provincial). However, the same legislative deadline of 30 days after being served with the notice to take action (including having had a hearing requesting a refraining order) is applicable in this situation. In other words, a refraining motion must be heard prior to the suspension of the passport (or other federal licence). Having said the above, even if the payor brought a motion on time, the court’s jurisdiction has a fairly narrow scope. In this article, we discuss this process and recent case law developments in more detail.
Default Hearing
If a payor is consistently in default of his or her obligations pursuant to a valid court order or agreement (meaning you have been missing monthly support payments consistently), FRO may decide to file a Notice of Default and request to note you in default of your obligations. This is done in court. As such, you will be officially served the court documents with the date when to attend the first hearing. The purpose of the default hearing is to have a Final Default Order. Such order usually contains the terms of how you must repay your total arrears and what consequences you will face for each and every further default (either defaulting on your monthly ongoing support or arrears payments). For example, your court order states you have to pay $100.00 per month towards child support. However you missed 10 months of payments and owe $1,000.00. The Final Default Order would usually state that you have to continue paying monthly amount of $100.00 for your usual ongoing support obligations plus the sum of $30.00 on account of arrears until the outstanding amount of $1,000.00 is paid in full. Some people may think that they continue to not pay. However, most of the times the Final Default Order would have another term, which is jail time for each missed payment. It can range from 1 day to several days in jail for each missed payment. This is the purpose of FRO’s default hearings. They want to ensure that moving forward you will start complying.
It is important to have a competent lawyer who knows how to fight default hearings. For example, at the hearing, there are several important considerations. Firstly, there is a presumption of the ability to pay. This means, the payor must convince the court that they cannot pay what FRO wants them to pay. This is a very difficult task. The second presumption is that FRO’s statement of arrears is correct. Again, if FRO made a mistake, the payor must prove it as otherwise, courts will accept their Statement of Arrears at face value.
Often, FRO enforces a court order or agreement that does not reflect the reality as things have changed. Even if that is true, the court will not give you an “out of jail” free card. You will be required to commence a Motion to Change proceedings and convince the court to change the underlying final order currently enforced by FRO. Your default hearing proceedings will still be pending and FRO together with the court will monitor your progress of the Motion to Change at the return dates on your default hearing.
Motion for Warrant of Committal
This is another court case that can be initiated by FRO. It happens when FRO has successfully obtained a Final Default Hearing and you continued to not comply. For example, if you were ordered to pay $100.00 per month for ongoing support plus $30.00 per month on account of arrears or be incarcerated for 3 days in jail for each default and you did not make a single payment in 6 months, FRO may decide to request the court to send you to jail for up to 36 days. It will be done by way of a Motion for Warrant of Committal.
This is a quasi-criminal proceeding as it has a very severe potential consequences for the payor. As such, you need to ensure to have a lawyer who knows how to address the nuances of this type of proceedings.
Evgeniy Osipov, the principal family law lawyer at Progressive Legal Solutions worked at Family Responsibility Office. He knows the system inside out. In fact, Evgeniy continues to act as a panel lawyer enforcing support payments on behalf of FRO. It allows him to stay current with respect to the applicable caselaw and legislation on a practical level. As such, if you are a payor and FRO has been after you taking certain enforcement steps, Evgeniy is a go-to person. He will help you fight Family Responsibility Office (FRO). PLS will help you obtain a favorable order against FRO ensuring that their enforcement is either terminated or suspended.