One of the elements of divorce that is unique to our province is the availability of the Family Responsibility Office. The Family Responsibility Office, or FRO, is a division within the government of Ontario tasked with overseeing child and spousal support payments being made (by the payor) to the other individual (the recipient).
The Family Responsibility Office deals mostly with issues of support payments, and doesn’t deal with issues of child custody, which are determined by the courts. As an unbiased organization, the FRO is able to help individuals make and receive support payments, sometimes even when they no longer live in Ontario.
How Loyens Law Professional Corporation and the Family Responsibility Office Can Help
There are certain advantages to using the Family Responsibility Office to help manage your support payments versus simply sending a cheque to the recipient each month. If the recipient has a habit of mismanaging their finances, or there is reason to suspect they may be less than honest with the support money you provide, Loyens Law Professional Corporation can request that payments go through the Family Responsibility Office. That way, payments are tracked by a third party that is impartial, meaning that payment discrepancies can be handled appropriately.
Because the Family Responsibility Office can enforce payment beyond Ontario, Loyens Law Professional Corporation can help keep your information updated so that you are in compliance with the FRO, regardless if you are the payor or recipient.
The Family Responsibility Office has agreements with all other Canadian provinces, the United States and around 30 other countries. Therefore, if you or the other parent moves to one of these places, support payments still need to be made according to the support order. A new or altered support order can be drafted between you, the other parent, and the lawyers involved that takes into account one parent moving out of Ontario. This is something that Loyens Law Professional Corporation can help with in order to preserve father’s rights in support orders.
If you need guidance in dealing with the Family Responsibility Office give Loyens Law Professional Corporation a call today.
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