Family Responsibility Office- Powers

The last couple of days I have been reading various articles in several Toronto newspapers and have been listening to talk radio in the Toronto area that had to do with the ability of the Family Responsibility Office to now be able to seize/impound a payers vehicle once he has fallen behind in payments etc.

My feeling towards this is twofold. Being a payer and having proudly paid support for my children and not having any issues with FRO personally, I can say that FRO is there to do a job and that is to simply enforce court orders or agreements that parties have agreed on and want FRO to enforce. Having said that, many times, in order to make changes to an order, one has to file a motion. Motions are typically easy to do and one does not have to spend lots of money on lawyers, instead they can do it themselves. The motions I would group in the easy column would be a change in support motion that was caused due to being laid off and or sickness and was not engineered by the payer would be a straight forward motion that would be dealt with relatively quickly. Every other motion I would group in the more difficult column and depending on your experience and expertise, would consider hiring a lawyer.

In over five years paying support, I was never late with a payment. When my income changed and I could no longer maintain paying the amount I was paying I had to file a motion to reduce my payments because I was now making less. During the time it took the court to change the amount I had to pay, I only paid the book amount and as such was falling into arrears for those months it took the court to lower my amount. In the end that arrears was erased because the court based my support on the book amount and therefore though technically I did go into arrears, the court retroactively erased these arrears. Confusing, I know. Anyway, during this time I received a letter from FRO telling me I was in arrears and they give you options on how you can arrange to pay back this money. I advised that I was currently before the courts and they told me they wouldn't enforce anything until my motion was dealt with. I simply had to give them my case number and court date. So in my case, FRO was easy to deal with.

The seizing or impounding of a vehicle, I would think would be used by FRO in extreme cases in which an individual has had an order to pay and has avoided paying at every cost, has tried to outrun FRO and his responsibility to his children and the arrears are staggering. Keeping in mind that taking someones vehicle would considerably hinder that persons ability for employment. If FRO can, on an individual bases, accurately and fairly look at every case and the persons circumstances and interpret properly the orders they are to enforce then it should be no problem. Keep in mind there will always be those individuals who fall through the crack and get screwed. That's my blurb for the day.

Family Responsibility Office

Otherwise known as FRO, the Family Responsibility Office to the beginner can be somewhat intimidating. I must admit that when I first became involved with FRO I was nervous and had some anxiety. Coming from a profession in which, in my opinion, 75% of the officers are involved in their 2nd or 3rd relationship and so the stories, horror stories that is, that I have heard made me very fearful of what being involved with FRO would mean.

My first divorce was a cake walk. My second, not so much...lol. The judgement was that I pay my ex spouse upwards of $1600 a month which was based on my salary at the time of around $65,000. This amount was both spousal and child support. Now I could go on and on about how I was screwed, but I won't. I will simply say I was screwed. Focusing on FRO and the amount of money I was to pay my ex, this is how it works. The individual who is awarded the support has the option of having FRO involved or not. In my case my ex chose to go through FRO. After the judgement and the papers are sent off to FRO, a file and case number is then created. FRO advises the payer not to pay the recipient any money during this set up period. This period of time usually takes up to three months. I would recommend that even though you are not paying the money during the setup period, you should at least set aside this money, because it is expected that you will be paying that money once the file creation is completed. Once this is done, you can then make your payment to FRO monthly. This can be done just as you would pay a bill online. FRO states that the payment is due on the first of every month, however, I always wait until the end of the month to collect the interest. As long as the money is paid no later than the last day of the month, FRO cannot penalize you or take any kind of action against you. I should also state that FRO provided me with that tip. FRO will also send you a letter telling you are in arrears the money that you didn't pay during the set up of the case file. This isn't a problem if you put that money aside like I stated earlier. If you didn't put that money aside, well then you can expect another letter from FRO weeks later asking you how you would like to pay back your arrears. Keep in mind that the recipient will be the catalyst of every letter you receive from FRO regarding arrears. The recipient usually tells FRO she hasn't gotten money and as such, FRO advises the recipient to fill out the proper paper work. Once this is done and sent to FRO, FRO will then take the appropriate actions to get that money.

Initially I was against my ex going through FRO because I was never late with money and always proudly paid on time. So I took it that by her going through FRO that this was indeed a slap in the face. However, after having time to get used to the idea and realizing that it actually protects my interests, has much as her interests, I gladly paid FRO. The added benefit is that I never had to deal with my ex about money. I also came to realize that FRO simply goes by the most recent information they have in the file. In other words, most recent court order, future court dates etc.

If you have cause to change the support amount, etc, then I recommend you file a motion. During this time if you have been laid off, sick etc and cannot afford the support, or whatever your reasoning and you have filed the motion, so long as you keep FRO updated on future court dates, it is very unlikely they will impose any kind of penalty. But don't think for a moment that you can ignore them or run from them, because if you do you will only be sorry. Make every effort to pay. 

So in conclusion, FRO is good and can work in your favor. Just don't be afraid to file that motion if you need to. It can be time consuming and frustrating, but it is worth it in the end.

Police vs. Public

The Toronto Star has recently done an investigation into several SIU investigations involving various police officers and what the outcomes of those investigations were. They have pointed out that in every case they have gone into detail about, it would appear that police officers are treated completely different than regular citizens and in cases where had it been a civilian, charges would have most definitely been laid, yet in cases involving police officers, the officers were more likely to get off without any type of charges laid against him or her, as well as avoiding any police act charges.

Yes, police have a very difficult job to carry out. They are scrutinized at every corner for every decision they make. It is in my opinion one of the most stressful jobs to do, I've done it. With that said, I also think that the police get away with more than they should, most specifically in investigations involving officers who have used force of some type and an individual ends up getting killed or at the very least his ass kicked. I have been involved in these types of investigations in some form or fashion and have unique first hand experience in how things are done.

The system is what it is and relies heavily on evidence. Evidence comes in various forms. Everything from eye witness accounts, video, audio, statements, physical, etc....you get the idea. The reason most officers don't end up getting charged is because in most cases these so called statements of witness and subject officers are often scripted. As such, this evidence and the lack of other evidence, and lets not forget the so called blue wall that everyone hears about, and I can assure you that this does exist, it all affects the system so much so that the officer(s) end up not being charged, or justified in what they did because they themselves, both subject officers and witness officers have had their statements scripted. Therefore the system, taking that evidence to be the truth ends up coming out with the headlines "Officers found not at fault" or something to that effect. In the case I was involved with, I was a witness officer. A youth had stolen a car, gotten into a police chase and struck an elderly gentleman on a bicycle, killing him. I arrived on scene, got into a foot chase with the youth and ended up arresting the youth. Without going into more detail, because a citizen was killed during a police chase it became bigger than I ever imagined. All of a sudden, I was called at the station while processing the youth. Spoke to my union rep, and subsequently advised to call a specific lawyer. I called this lawyer and he basically told me what to write. I was told to write my notes on regular letter size paper and to meet, him and a very high ranking member of the police association at a bar located downtown. Once I arrived the lawyer reviewed my statement, made any changes he felt were necessary and then told me it would be alright for me to then write this into my notebook. Can you see anything wrong with that process? Me too. But this was and still is for the most part the culture of policing. I can honestly say I don't miss it. 

Focusing on topic, the system, I am simply stating that because the evidence against a regular citizen is fairly straight forward and on the level, however, when a policeman finds themselves as the focus of the investigation, the process of collecting and the authenticity of this evidence, is collected by the SIU as best as it can be, the problem is, is that police do get more of an opportunity to shape that evidence into evidence that places themselves in a more favorable light and more often than not is enough to get them off. The system works, its just......shall we say can be  manipulated by those who want to and know how and who are allowed to.

Small Claims

Just helped a friend during a settlement conference for a small claims case. From the time we got there to the time we left, with a settlement to the matter, was an hour and a half in total. It went smoothly, but in this case all parties were willing to listen to one another and respect each others case and where they were coming from. Simply put we met somewhere in the middle and I can say that this was by far the smoothest case I have been involved with. Credit should go to all parties including the JP and the clerks. It was a job well done and a shining example of how the courts and the system are supposed to work. Even had a settlement not been reached, this case would still be an example of a success on how the courts and the system were intended to work.

Clerks of the Courts

Whether you are a lawyer, paralegal, or simply representing yourself in court at some point during any court process you will undoubtedly have to deal with a court clerk. As one who has represented himself on several occasions there seems to be one aspect of dealing with these clerks that stands out for me. Some are down right rude, condescending, and have absolutely no people skills yet work in a field that one should have some type of skills dealing with people. Maybe some empathy as well and a bit of understanding for the situation that people like us find ourselves in.  Yes we all have bad days, but when a lawyer or paralegal come in and are treated with a certain respect and a regular citizen comes in right after and is basically snubbed and disrespected when all they are asking for are forms or to have something sworn to and perhaps have something explained to them, it is simply giving themselves a black eye and a reputation that at some point will catch up with them. I mean, for myself, I use it as motivation. I realize that by representing ones self you risk slowing the process down by not knowing the process and forms to use but at the end of the day, this is  a country that you have the Right to represent yourself. Some don't have the money, some don't qualify for legal aid and in my case, I simply hate to have to pay someone to represent me in a case that only I know everything about, and am more than capable of doing myself and in most case do it better than most lawyers and paralegals. That is why I will always be glad to give advice to anyone who asks and tell people though the courts and the system can seem intimidating at times, you can do it. If the clerks were friendlier and more helpful and less condescending then the system might actually feel a little more comfortable and less intimidating.

Motions

Well today is a day of motions which always seem to result in emotion if you hold a personal stake in said case. I only say this because as one write's out the content of their motion you are essentially telling a story because you have to back that motion up with an affadavit. A motion is something you are asking the court to grant. Once you write what you want then you have to submit a supporting affadavit. In other words the reasons you are asking for your motion to be granted. So by the time you are done this you will most likely be emotionally exhausted. Then comes service of these documents to all parties involved. That is another story for another day.