family responsibility office confirmation of assignment

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3257 oap clinical supervisor attestation form, on00281 partner facility renewal 2024-2025 program and application guide, 006-2865 rights and responsibilities ontario disability support program, 006-1107 rights and responsibilities ontario works, on00601 financial circumstances form, on00589 women’s economic security program, 006-fro-005 registration package, 006-3249 formal complaint to a society's internal complaints review panel (icrp), on00588 wesp application guidelines 2023-2024, 006-fro-010 financial statement, 006-3242 application for a licence or renewal of a licence to place children for adoption, 006-3250 request to director for review of proposed placement, 006-3240 acknowledgment of adoption placement, 006-3239 director's registration of placement of child for adoption, 006-3238 registration of placement of a child for adoption, 006-3237 notice to a director of proposed placement, on00279 access request form, 006-3095 application for a copy of an adoption order, 006-3006 confirmation of assignment, 3025 vehicle trip log.

A partnership led by CLEO

Guided Pathway for filing your support agreement for enforcement: Form 26B

CLEO’s Family Law Guided Pathways are designed to help you fill out the court forms you need for your family law matter.

You can use this pathway if you want to enforce the support amounts outlined in your separation agreement, marriage contract, cohabitation agreement, or paternity agreement.

You must file this form with the court if you want the Family Responsibility Office’s help in getting child support or spousal support payments. It can’t be used to enforce orders about decision-making responsibility, parenting time, or any other type of financial support. Decision-making responsibility and parenting time used to be called custody and access.

The pathway asks you questions, gives you information to help answer them, and puts your answers into the required form. The pathway is free to use.

When you’re finished, you can save or print your form. You will also get instructions about how to give the form to the court.

It can take as little as 10 minutes to complete the pathway, if you have all the information you need to answer the questions. It will take longer in more complicated situations.

You can sign up to create an account or use the pathway as a guest. If you choose not to create an account, the system will time out after 4 hours. You must create an account if you want to save your work on the system.

Any personal information that you enter into the pathways is confidential. CLEO will not give your personal information to anyone unless you ask us to do this. Read more in the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

If you need help using the Guided Pathways, or have questions contact [email protected] .

Steps to Justice Partners

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Paying and receiving child and spousal support

Learn how the Family Responsibility Office ( FRO ) helps you pay and receive your support, and what to do if a payment is missed.

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Paying support.

We know you want to do the right thing and support your family. We’re here to help you meet your responsibilities.

When you have a case open with FRO , you must make your support payments to FRO only.

Once we receive a payment, we send it to the support recipient usually within one to two business days.

Do not pay the support recipient directly .

If you send a payment directly to the recipient, it will not show up on your FRO account. We will charge you $100 every time we have to adjust your account to make it show the correct amount.

You should keep records of your support payments. We do not issue year-end statements.

If you or the recipient live outside of Ontario there is a different process. Learn about child and spousal support when one person lives outside of Ontario .

When you are employed or getting paid regularly from an income source

When the Ontario court makes a support order, it also gives us the right to send a support deduction notice to your employer or other income source. Your employer, pension, or other income source will then deduct the amount of support that you owe from your net pay and send it to us.

It may take some time for your employer to set up the automatic deductions. Until they are set up, you must send FRO the support payments on your own.

When you are self-employed, unemployed or not on a regular payroll

If you are self-employed, unemployed or not on a regular payroll, you must pay FRO on your own. There are several ways you can do that.

Paying on your own

Pre-authorized debit ( pad ) from your bank account.

You can make pre-authorized support payments by completing the pre-authorized debit application for payors form and sending it to us.

Send the form by uploading it to FRO Online , or send it to:

Family Responsibility Office Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services PO Box 200, Station A Oshawa, Ontario L1H 0C5

Fax: 416-240-2401

Pay through a bank

The Family Responsibility Office is a registered payee with most banks and credit unions. You can arrange to make your payments online , by telephone banking, or in cash.

To make your support payments through online banking :

• Log in to your bank’s website or app
• Go to the section where you pay bills
• Add the Family Responsibility Office as a payee or bill – you may find us listed under “Ontario”
• For the “account number,” enter your seven-digit FRO case number, that starts with 0 or 1.

To register for telephone banking , call your bank. Make sure you have your seven-digit FRO case number with you.

If you need to pay in cash , you may pay at a bank. Tell the bank you need make a payment to the Family Responsibility Office and give them your case number. Make sure you get a receipt and keep it.

Cheque or money order

Make your cheque or money order payable to the Director, Family Responsibility Office and mail it to:

Family Responsibility Office Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services PO Box 2204, Station P Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E9

Remember, always include your seven-digit FRO case number and your full name (including first and last names) on your payments and in all correspondence with us. Do not include your personal identification number ( PIN ).

If you do not include your case number and name on the cheque, we will be unable to process the payment and you will be at risk of enforcement action.

Alternative payment orders

Alternative payment orders allow a support payor to pay by a method other than automatic income deductions under a support deduction order.

Alternative payment orders are made by a judge in limited circumstances.

If you want to ask the court to make an alternative payment order, complete the appropriate sections of the alternative payment order form before your court date.

If you or the support recipient has a lawyer, the lawyer will complete the rest of the form based on what the judge orders. If neither of you has a lawyer, give the form to the court clerk and the court will complete the rest of the form based on what the judge orders.

Learn more about paying arrears

Ending support payments

Generally, you should keep making payments until we tell you in writing that you can stop.

Ontario laws do not set automatic end dates for child or spousal support payments. For example, support does not automatically end when a child turns 18. However, support orders and domestic contracts may set a date or an event called a 'terminating event' that ends support payments.

When an order or contract does not say when support payments end, the support payor and support recipient must both agree to end the payments. If they cannot agree on ending the payments, they may have to go to court and have a judge decide.

If there is a terminating event

Some support orders or domestic contracts set a 'terminating event' that ends support payments. For example, a terminating event for child support could be the child leaving school or starting full-time work. A terminating event for spousal support could be remarriage.

Both the payor and recipient must agree that a terminating event has occurred for FRO to stop enforcing support payments without a court order.

Keep us informed. If you have a court order that ends support, send a copy of it to us. Or if you believe a terminating event has happened, contact us. We will review your file and take appropriate action.

If you tell us that support should end

If you believe that your support should end or has ended, you can tell us by completing the application to discontinue enforcement of ongoing support form and send it to us. This form can be completed and submitted via FRO Online or you can download and fill in the form and send it to:

After you contact us, we will send a letter to the support recipient for confirmation. How the recipient responds will determine what we will do next.

• If the recipient denies that support should end , we will continue to enforce the support order. If you still believe that support should end, you may have to go back to court.
• If the recipient does not respond to our request , we can stop enforcing support payments or enforce a lower amount of support. However, if the recipient tells us later that payments should not have ended, we can start enforcing payments again.
• If the recipient agrees in writing to end support , we will tell you in writing that you can stop making support payments.

Our office will continue to collect support for other dependents on the support order (if there are other dependents on the support order), as well as any arrears, or money you still owe. Sometimes that means paying us even after your support payments have ended because you may still owe us money for:

• enforcement costs
• administrative costs, including banking fees
• court costs

When support payors should contact us

To help us keep accurate information about you and help avoid possible enforcement actions, contact us immediately if:

• your financial situation changes, such as due to losing your job
• you fall behind on your payments
• your name, address or employer/source of income changes
• you believe that your obligation to pay support has ended
• you receive a notice of enforcement action from FRO

You may also wish to contact a lawyer to find out what your options are. We cannot change the amount of support you pay. Only a judge can change the amount of support in your support order.

Paying arrears

Most of our clients willingly pay their support fully and on time.

Unfortunately, sometimes people fall behind on their support responsibilities.

If you fall behind on your support responsibilities, the money that you owe is called arrears.

If you fall behind in your support payments, contact our office right away.

Send a message through FRO Online or call:

• Toronto: 416-326-1817
• Toll-free: 1-800-267-4330
• Toll-free TTY : 1-866-545-0083

You may also send a letter to:

Together, we can work out a voluntary payment plan, called a voluntary arrears payment schedule.

Through a voluntary arrears payment schedule, you and FRO work together to develop a plan that will help you pay down the amount you owe while also paying ongoing support. You will need to complete two forms:

• voluntary arrears payment schedule proposal form
• financial statement form

If you do not meet your support responsibilities, we have the legal authority and responsibility to take enforcement action to recover the money that you owe.

Receiving support

When you will receive your first payment.

If there are no complications with enforcing the payments, you can expect to start receiving them within 30 to 60 days of registration. If the payor is not making payments or if we do not know who their employer is, it may take longer to receive your first payment.

If you or the payor live outside of Ontario there is a different process. Learn about child and spousal support when one person lives outside of Ontario .

Receive your payments by direct deposit

When we register your case, we will send you a registration for direct deposit form . This form gives us permission to deposit support payments directly into your bank account.

When we receive a support payment, we deposit it in your account usually within two business days if we have all the correct account information. Make sure you let us know immediately if any of your banking information changes.

If there are changes to your banking information, please send us a new registration for direct deposit form .

Tell us right away if you get a payment directly from the payor . When your case is filed with us, the payor must make all support payments through our office.

Delayed payments

If you haven’t received a payment in more than 30 days, please contact us.

Send a message through FRO Online or call us:

Toronto: 416-326-1817 Toll-free: 1-800-267-4330 Toll-free TTY : 1-866-545-0083

Agents are available Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Do not contact the payor’s employer or income source.

Payments may be late for several reasons, including:

• postal delays
• payments with missing or incorrect information (such as the wrong seven-digit case number)
• a change in the payor’s employment

If you need us to send you a new cheque because a previous cheque was lost, please fill out the affidavit for a lost cheque form and send it to us.

If the payor has not been making payments, we will first try to work with them to develop a payment plan for the amount that is owed, while making ongoing support payments.

If the payor does not set up a payment plan, we can take enforcement action .

Unpaid support and interest

You need to complete a Statement of Arrears form to let us know about any support payments, special expenses or court costs (related to support) you did not receive before your case was registered or which become owed to you at other times during the life of your case with FRO .

Learn how to complete a Statement of Arrears form and get the unpaid support and interest you are owed.

Log into FRO Online to get information about your support payments.

When to contact us

Contact us immediately if:

• your name, address, telephone number or banking information changes
• you have any new information about the person who is paying your support, such as a new name, address, telephone number, job or financial situation
• you believe that the support obligation has ended
• you receive a letter from us requesting that you confirm or deny that support has ended
• the support payor has used or is using a different name from the one on the support order, including nicknames, aliases or different spellings

Before you contact us

To get case information, you must have your seven-digit case number.

You will need your personal identification number ( PIN ) to get automated information only.

Do not share your PIN with anyone, including our staff.

If one person lives outside of Ontario , please contact the interjurisdictional support orders unit .

If you’re looking for information about your support payments, you may be able to get the information you need without speaking to someone.

Learn more about our self-serve options to help you get information about your support payments .

Call us to:

• get general information about FRO
• speak to us or leave a message
• access automated information about recent transactions on your case

Automated information about your case is available 24 hours a day.

Mailing us payments

Mail payments to:

All payments must :

• be payable to “Director, Family Responsibility Office”
• include your case number and first and last name

This address is for payments only. Do not send correspondence to this address.

Sending us a letter

You can send us a letter or form through FRO Online if you are registered and have a case number.

You can also mail correspondence and forms without payments to:

This address is for correspondence and forms only. Do not mail payments, such as cheques or money orders, to this address.

Serving court documents on FRO

You can serve court documents on FRO by mail, fax or email.

Email: [email protected] .

This email is not for client service-related inquiries or for the delivery of other documents to FRO . For case-related inquiries, please contact us at Toll-free: 1-800-267-4330 .

Mailing address:

Legal Services Branch Family Responsibility Office Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services 7th Floor-125 Sir William Hearst Avenue North York, Ontario M3M 0B5

Do not bring or send payments to this address. Get information about ways you can pay support .

Fax: 416-240-2402

If the payor or recipient lives outside of Ontario, please contact the interjurisdictional support orders unit.

Payors or recipients living outside of Ontario

For information or questions about payors or recipients who live outside of Ontario , contact the interjurisdictional support orders unit:

Toronto: 416-240-2410 Toll-free: 1-800-463-3533

Family Responsibility Office Interjurisdictional Support Orders Unit PO Box 600, Steeles West Post Office Toronto, Ontario M3J 0K8 Canada

Do not send payments to this address. Please send payments to:

Unresolved issue or service complaint

FRO is committed to delivering excellent service.

If you have an unresolved issue or service complaint, or if you would like to submit feedback, you can contact FRO ’s director .

Freedom of information requests

If you would like to get access to government records using the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act ( FIPPA ) or to correct your personal information, please complete the freedom of information access or correction request form and mail it to:

FIPPA Representative Family Responsibility Office Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services PO Box 611, Steeles West Post Office Toronto, Ontario M3J 0K8

Learn about making a freedom of information request .

You must include a $5 cheque or money order payable to “Minister of Finance” and mark the envelope as “private and confidential.”

Scheduling of Family Matters

Last updated: April 03, 2024

*This Notice replaces previously announced notices.

1.  INTRODUCTION

2. family court locations, 3.  family law rules, 4.  witnesses, 6.  pre-court discussions, 7.  legal resources, 8.  mediation.

This Notice sets out how family law proceedings in the Ontario Court of Justice are scheduled and conducted as of April 3, 2024, and until further notice.

Family matters are to be heard in-person, by virtual technology (video or telephone) or a combination of in-person and virtual technology, according to the chart below.

If a party and/or lawyer wish to request a different mode of appearance, use Form 17F or 14B to request the change, according to local practice.

Except for First Appearance Court or First Court Date, if your case was scheduled for a hearing prior to October 10, 2023 and is different from the modes of appearance outlined below, the hearing will proceed as originally scheduled.  For example, if a virtual hearing was scheduled prior to October 10, 2023, but the mode of appearance is now an in-person hearing, the appearance will continue as a virtual hearing, unless otherwise directed by a judge.

If you are unsure whether your case is being held in-person, by video or telephone or a combination of in person and remote, please contact your lawyer or, if you do not have a lawyer, contact the courthouse where your case is being heard.  Contact information can be found here: Ontario court locations, service hours and contacts | Ontario.ca .

All participants should review the  Remote Appearances Code of Conduct prior to attending any virtual court proceeding.

Family Law Act, Children’s Law Reform Act and other domestic family proceedings:

Hearings:                                                                   Mode of Appearance:

Family Responsibility Office (FRO), Interjurisdictional Support Orders Act (ISOA) and Hague and non-Hague Jurisdictional Proceedings:

Child Youth and Family Services Act (CYFSA) (including adoption and openness) Proceedings

Appearance                                                                    Mode of Appearance

Court locations with contact information may be found here: Ontario court locations, service hours and contacts | Ontario.ca

Daily court lists for family matters at the Ontario Court of Justice may be found here: Daily Court Lists

The times prescribed in the Family Law Rules to take any step in a family law proceeding continue to be enforced.  If you do not take the steps needed in your case, your case may go ahead without you.

If you are a witness and have any questions or concerns about your summons or about an upcoming court date, please contact the person listed on the summons or on the correspondence you received with your summons.  If there is no contact information on your summons, contact the courthouse by email:  Courthouse email addresses or by telephone: Court Addresses and Phone Numbers  

Please see below for the Naming Protocol of Documents when submitted electronically.

Documents may be submitted in three ways:

1) electronically using the Family Submissions Online; or

2) in-person at the courthouse; or

3) electronically using email to file documents only in the following circumstances:

• For documents for a court attendance that is 5 business days or less away
• For urgent matters, including requests for an urgent hearing
• If you have a court order requiring you to file by email

Family Submissions Online:

The Family Submissions Online portal provides a simple method to electronically submit court documents, at every step in a case, in any new or existing family proceeding in the Ontario Court of Justice. Note, however, that there are limitations to documents that may be filed at this time.  Please check www.ontario.ca/familyclaims to ensure that your documents may be filed using the portal.

If the court clerk accepts the document for filing or issuance, they are considered filed as per the date indicated on the document.

Counsel and parties must keep any document that was originally signed, certified or commissioned in paper format until the court finally disposes of the matter or if a notice of appeal is not served in the case, the time for serving the notice has expired.

When a document has been filed electronically, it is not necessary to file a paper copy.

Family Submissions Online: Institutional Litigants

Institutional litigants, such as a children’s aid society, the Family Responsibility Office, Office of the Children’s Lawyer and Ontario Works, etc., shall use the Family Submissions Online portal on Justice Services Online to submit documents to the court for filing or issuance, subject to the following exceptions:

• Documents for a court event or deadline that is 5 business days or less away (for example, protection applications where a child has been brought to a place of safety);
• Documents for an urgent hearing;
• Documents relating to an application for adoption or an openness order;
• Documents in support of a sealing motion or subject to a sealing order.

Only documents that fall under one of the above exceptions may be filed or issued in person or by email.

The file naming protocol located below is applicable and must be followed.

In-person Filing:

If you are unable to file documents in a family court matter by the Family Submissions Online portal or by email, contact your local courthouse to determine the other options that are available or attend your local courthouse.  Contact information for all courts in Ontario is available on the Ministry of the Attorney General website:  https://www.ontario.ca/locations/courts

Email Filing:

If you cannot file a document using Family Submissions Online or in-person, documents and requests may be emailed to the appropriate courthouse only in the following circumstances:

Email filing requirements continue to include the following:

• The list of email addresses for each court may be found here: Courthouse email addresses
• LEVEL OF COURT (OCJ)
• TYPE OF MATTER (Family, CYFSA)
• FILE NUMBER (Indicate NEW if no court file number exists)
• TYPE OF DOCUMENT (Motion, Application, Case Conference, Settlement Conference, Trial Management Conference, Combined Conference, Trial Record, Focused Hearing, Other Request)
• court file number (if it is an existing file)
• short title of proceeding
• list of documents attached (note: attachments cannot exceed 35MB)
• type of request
• confirmation of service, setting out when and how any other party was served.
• name, role (i.e. legal representative, party, etc.,) and contact information of person submitting the request (email and phone number)

Important Information Regarding Electronic Filing

Naming Protocol for Documents:

NOTE:   The Naming Protocol below replaces previous Naming Protocols.

When documents are submitted to the court in electronic format, the document name must indicate the following information in the following order:

• Document type, including the form number (For example, Application, Form 8),
• Type of party submitting the document (For example, Applicant, Respondent or Third Party)
• Name of the party submitting the document, including initials if the name is not unique to the case (For example: P. Smith and B. Smith – initials must be used if the parties share a last name; Smith and Thomas – initials are not required if the parties do not share a last name), and
• Date on which the document was created or signed, in the format DD-MMM-YYYY (For example: 12-JAN-2021).

Below are sample document names:

Application Form 8 – Applicant – P. Smith – 12-JAN-2021

Notice of Motion Form 14 – Respondent – J. Brown – 21-DEC-2021

Affidavit General Form 14A – OCL – 01-JUL-2021

Document names shall not include firm-specific naming conventions or court file numbers.

Abbreviations may only be used as follows:

APP for Applicant RESP for Respondent O for Other

For institutional litigants:

CAS for Children’s Aid Societies FRO for Family Responsibility Office OCL for Office of the Children’s Lawyer

CaseLines :

As of December 2021, the Ontario Court of Justice began to use CaseLines.  This platform has been rolled out regionally across the province.  For more information on the CaseLines document sharing platform, please see: Thomson Reuters CaseLines User Support .   For additional information, please see the OCJ’s CaseLines Notice to the Profession: https://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/caselines/

Sworn Documents:

Parties must file sworn documents.

Litigants and counsel may file affidavits that have been virtually/ remotely commissioned, as permitted by O.Reg. 431/20: Administering Oath or Declaration Remotely , under the Commissioners for Taking Affidavits Act .

Signed Documents:

The Ontario Court of Justice will continue to accept electronically signed documents where a signature is required.  An electronic signature consists of electronic information that identifies the signatory and the date and place of signing.

Other Important Information Regarding Filing :

As per previous Notices regarding the Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice, the following expectations continue to be in place:

By submitting documents by Family Submissions Online or email to the court, the party/legal representative agrees to accept email communication from the court with respect to the proceeding.

The materials should also include any relevant prior orders or endorsements that were issued.

These instructions are subject to direction from a judicial official.

As per previous Notices regarding the Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice , the following expectations continue to be in place:

Parties should make reasonable efforts to communicate prior to a hearing to attempt to resolve the issues.  If a contested hearing is necessary, parties should determine the issues that remain in dispute. The parties should make efforts to narrow the issues as much as possible and discuss the nature of any evidence to be heard and how it will be presented.

Legal Aid Ontario

If you do not have a lawyer and you have family law case before the Ontario Court of Justice and/or a scheduled family hearing, contact Legal Aid Ontario at 1‑800‑668‑8258 to inquire about assistance.

Law Society of Ontario (LSO) Referral Service

The Law Society of Ontario’s Referral Service will give you the name of a lawyer within or near your community, who will provide a free consultation of up to 30 minutes to help you determine your rights and options.  You can start the online process of obtaining a lawyer referral at http://www.findlegalhelp.ca/ , 24 hours per day.

A Guide for Self-represented Family Litigants

The Ontario Court of Justice has information for self-represented family litigants.  You may find the information here: https://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/family-court/ .

Law Society of Ontario’s (LSO) Pilot Project for Articling and LPP/PPD student appearances in OCJ Family Matters

To help facilitate the delivery of affordable family law services, starting on January 17,  2022, articling and LPP/PPD students may appear on certain events in a family law case without needing advance permission from the Court as required by Family Law Rule 4(1)(c).  The list of these attendances will be available shortly on the Law Society of Ontario’s website: https://lso.ca/home .  Students who are authorized to appear on these attendances as part of this pilot must be prepared with full instructions for matters that are expected to be addressed and appropriately supervised by a lawyer in their firm.  Moreover, the supervising lawyer with knowledge of the matter must be available on-call to assist with the matter at the request of the presiding judge.  More details about the requirements of this pilot will also be available shortly on the LSO’s website.

Pro Bono Students Canada Family Justice Centre:

Pro Bono Students Canada will be hosting virtual legal clinics for Ontarians dealing with family law issues who are unable to afford a lawyer, but do not necessarily meet the threshold to qualify for legal aid services. At the virtual clinics, private bar family law lawyers will supervise law students in the delivery of unbundled legal services to self-represented litigants in Ontario.  For more information, please see: https://www.probonostudents.ca/family-justice-centre

The Ministry of the Attorney General provides mediation services.  You may wish to contact the mediation services for information about resources that are available in your location. You can find them here:  Ministry of the Attorney General – Mediators by Court Location

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