Orders issued by the family law courts in Ontario typically come with mandatory provision for the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) to enforce the support payments. The enforcement clause looks like this:

Support Deduction Order to Issue. Unless this order is withdrawn from the Family Responsibility Office, it shall be enforced by the Director and the amounts owing under the order shall be paid to the Director, who shall pay them to the recipient. Where sufficient deductions are not being made by support deduction order, payment may be remitted to the Director, Family Responsibility Office.

In some cases. the support payor and the recipient prefer to arrange for support payments to take place privately without the FRO’s involvement. This can be done by withdrawing the support order from the FRO.

• If the support payments are up-to-date and there are no amounts owing in arrears, both parties must consent in writing to withdraw from the program by completing a Notice of Withdrawal. Once the Director is informed of the withdrawal, the FRO will stop all enforcement and close the file.

• If there are amounts owing in arrears, the support recipient may withdraw from the program unilaterally by completing a Notice by Support Recipient of Unilateral Withdrawal. Once the Director receives the completed form, the FRO will stop all enforcement on the case.

• If the support order is assigned to Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program, the appropriate social services provider must consent before the FRO can allow the parties’ withdrawal.

Re-registering a case

If the support payor and the support recipient decide to re-register a case with the FRO, a administrative fee will be charged to both parties. Either party may request to re-register the case.

Note: Please keep in mind that this article is provided for information and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be regarded as such. The law may have changed since the publication of the article.