Why?

If you’ve found this site, odds are you are having difficulties with the Family Responsibility Office.

Perhaps, like me, you spent years and thousands of dollars caught up in the maze of the family court system, naively believing that once you had a court order in hand the nightmare would be over and you’d be able to close that chapter of your life and begin again.

Only you found out rather quickly people don’t follow court orders. A lot of people don’t follow court orders. My ex certainly doesn’t. Does yours?

CTV News reported last August that there is currently two billion dollars in unpaid support in Ontario alone.

That isn’t a typo. TWO BILLION

The Family Responsibility Office is mandated to collect that support. They don’t do their job very well. The Ontario Ombudsman reports that FRO is the most complained about government agency, second only to the prison system.

One huge problem is the secrecy surrounding FRO. People don’t understand how the Family Responsibility Office works. FRO staff don’t/won’t return phone calls or respond to faxes and letters. Both payors and recipients are left in the dark, growing more and more “frostrated.”

So I thought I’d start a site to cast some light on the problem.

I want to create a database of information about the Family Responsibility Office that will help the public navigate this government program. I’d also like to post people’s individual stories so we don’t feel so isolated and alone. There is strength in numbers.

If you have any advice for others in dealing with FRO, please share it. I’d especially love to hear about interactions with FRO that worked.

If you have an idea for a post, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll put it up. Have a question? I’ll try to find the answer.

The better informed you are, the more successful you will be at advocating for yourself and your children.