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History:
When my commonlaw wife and her ex separated, he (falsely) accused her of being mentally unstable and won temporary custody of their daughter in January 2005. He asked for and received an order that her access be supervised. She immediately underwent an extensive psychiatric assessment and the supervising psychiatrist concluded that she was not mentally ill and not dangerous to her daughter. The OCL investigated and concluded that there was no basis for his claims of mental instability and recommended joint-shared custody. His lawyer refused to accept the reports and demanded that my wife be assessed by a psychiatrist of their choice. My wife had an incompetent and unethical lawyer who never even bothered to make a motion for joint-shared custody based on the two reports, but instead wasted months arguing with his lawyer. During this time, my wife was regularly denied her court appointed access. In March 2006 my wife underwent the second psychiatric evaluation, but his lawyer kept delaying the result and eventually cancelled the report and claimed litigation privilege, muzzling the psychiatrist. We are still trying to have this lawyer disciplined, because the psychiatric assessment had been ordered by the court and so she should have had to return to court if she had reason to cancel it, and she could not claim litigation privilege since she had already evinced her intention to submit the report to the court. My wife's lawyer was suspended in the fall of 2006 and she hired a new lawyer in January 2007. His second lawyer (hired immediately after the psychiatric report was cancelled) disobeyed a court order to submit forms to the OCL and the OCL just closed the file, with no consequences for him. Then, his lawyer did not respond to communications for months, and did not show up for a May 2008 court date. My wife succeeded in having her ex ordered to submit forms to the OCL and despite his attempts to stop the investigation, it was completed in the fall of 2008. During that time, the psychiatrist who conducted the second psychiatric evaluation was finally persuaded to release his draft report, which was prepared for and sent to his lawyer in May 2006. The report found no evidence of a mental illness. At the OCL disclosure meeting, my wife's ex was taken to task for his tactics and he agreed to joint-shared custody, which has been implemented since April.
FRO errors:
The final agreement and financial settlement was signed in September, and calls for him to pay my wife $360 a month and 70% of the additional expenses. The agreement went to the court and was sent to the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) by mail and FAX on September 29, 2009.
Instead of stopping my wife's payments, they increased to $534 each month (deducted from her parental leave EI benefits). We called FRO in November and told them that instead of paying her, they had increased the deduction and the response was "Isn't that what the order states?" We were told that they didn't have the order, that it must have been lost and that this happens all the time. We had her lawyer send another copy of the order and the financial calculation. A couple of weeks later we called and were told that they still don't have the order. We were finally told that a new case number had been assigned. The $534 deductions from my wife's parental leave benefits continued through December 2009, despite calls and multiple copies of the order being sent.
Payments from her ex started in January 2010 but are arriving late. We have called FRO a few times over the last 2 months and every time we call we get a different story. We have been told the following:
1. Be happy that your payments have started. It will take a few months to sort out what happened in the fall.
2. We have no record of any overpayments from you. We received your nasty letter; do you really think that will get your file looked at any faster?
3. With both files open, I can see the excess payments from your wife in the fall, and I can see the lack of payments to your wife in the fall. Have her call us because this will be easy to sort out.
4. When she called.... As far as we are concerned, payments started in January 2010. You will have to take your ex to court if you want to receive back any overpayments or any payments not made from 2009.
I called the office of the Minister of Community and Social services yesterday and gave a summary of the situation and someone there told me that she will look into it, agreeing that we should not ahve to go to court over this. I also sent an e-mail to the Minister and to our MPP.
Our position is, FRO messed up by not stopping my wife's deductions when ordered to, by misreading the new order, and by not starting payments from her ex. They assigned a new case number when this was not a new case; they did not tell us that we had a new case number for two months, and are now refusing to deal with anything related to the old case number.
We don't even know when they started deducting from her ex and if they gave her ex the erroneous deductions from my wife. In early January we were told that he had started paying in October, but yesterday it seemed that he had not started until January. Every time we call FRO the story is different.
I told the Minister and our MPP that instead of taking my wife's ex to court, that we would take FRO to court, because they messed up. From now on, I want the name of every person that I speak to, and if they cannot either fix the situation or let me speak to a higher authority, I will tell them that their name and their poor attitude is going to appear on the internet and in the media. Based on reading past experiences with FRO, it seems that they will never hire competent people or fix their own mistakes unless a lot of noise is made, so we are now prepared to make noise.
Anyone who has argued with FRO or who has any updates to previous cases posted here in the past, if you could post any results or advice, it would be appreciated.
When my commonlaw wife and her ex separated, he (falsely) accused her of being mentally unstable and won temporary custody of their daughter in January 2005. He asked for and received an order that her access be supervised. She immediately underwent an extensive psychiatric assessment and the supervising psychiatrist concluded that she was not mentally ill and not dangerous to her daughter. The OCL investigated and concluded that there was no basis for his claims of mental instability and recommended joint-shared custody. His lawyer refused to accept the reports and demanded that my wife be assessed by a psychiatrist of their choice. My wife had an incompetent and unethical lawyer who never even bothered to make a motion for joint-shared custody based on the two reports, but instead wasted months arguing with his lawyer. During this time, my wife was regularly denied her court appointed access. In March 2006 my wife underwent the second psychiatric evaluation, but his lawyer kept delaying the result and eventually cancelled the report and claimed litigation privilege, muzzling the psychiatrist. We are still trying to have this lawyer disciplined, because the psychiatric assessment had been ordered by the court and so she should have had to return to court if she had reason to cancel it, and she could not claim litigation privilege since she had already evinced her intention to submit the report to the court. My wife's lawyer was suspended in the fall of 2006 and she hired a new lawyer in January 2007. His second lawyer (hired immediately after the psychiatric report was cancelled) disobeyed a court order to submit forms to the OCL and the OCL just closed the file, with no consequences for him. Then, his lawyer did not respond to communications for months, and did not show up for a May 2008 court date. My wife succeeded in having her ex ordered to submit forms to the OCL and despite his attempts to stop the investigation, it was completed in the fall of 2008. During that time, the psychiatrist who conducted the second psychiatric evaluation was finally persuaded to release his draft report, which was prepared for and sent to his lawyer in May 2006. The report found no evidence of a mental illness. At the OCL disclosure meeting, my wife's ex was taken to task for his tactics and he agreed to joint-shared custody, which has been implemented since April.
FRO errors:
The final agreement and financial settlement was signed in September, and calls for him to pay my wife $360 a month and 70% of the additional expenses. The agreement went to the court and was sent to the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) by mail and FAX on September 29, 2009.
Instead of stopping my wife's payments, they increased to $534 each month (deducted from her parental leave EI benefits). We called FRO in November and told them that instead of paying her, they had increased the deduction and the response was "Isn't that what the order states?" We were told that they didn't have the order, that it must have been lost and that this happens all the time. We had her lawyer send another copy of the order and the financial calculation. A couple of weeks later we called and were told that they still don't have the order. We were finally told that a new case number had been assigned. The $534 deductions from my wife's parental leave benefits continued through December 2009, despite calls and multiple copies of the order being sent.
Payments from her ex started in January 2010 but are arriving late. We have called FRO a few times over the last 2 months and every time we call we get a different story. We have been told the following:
1. Be happy that your payments have started. It will take a few months to sort out what happened in the fall.
2. We have no record of any overpayments from you. We received your nasty letter; do you really think that will get your file looked at any faster?
3. With both files open, I can see the excess payments from your wife in the fall, and I can see the lack of payments to your wife in the fall. Have her call us because this will be easy to sort out.
4. When she called.... As far as we are concerned, payments started in January 2010. You will have to take your ex to court if you want to receive back any overpayments or any payments not made from 2009.
I called the office of the Minister of Community and Social services yesterday and gave a summary of the situation and someone there told me that she will look into it, agreeing that we should not ahve to go to court over this. I also sent an e-mail to the Minister and to our MPP.
Our position is, FRO messed up by not stopping my wife's deductions when ordered to, by misreading the new order, and by not starting payments from her ex. They assigned a new case number when this was not a new case; they did not tell us that we had a new case number for two months, and are now refusing to deal with anything related to the old case number.
We don't even know when they started deducting from her ex and if they gave her ex the erroneous deductions from my wife. In early January we were told that he had started paying in October, but yesterday it seemed that he had not started until January. Every time we call FRO the story is different.
I told the Minister and our MPP that instead of taking my wife's ex to court, that we would take FRO to court, because they messed up. From now on, I want the name of every person that I speak to, and if they cannot either fix the situation or let me speak to a higher authority, I will tell them that their name and their poor attitude is going to appear on the internet and in the media. Based on reading past experiences with FRO, it seems that they will never hire competent people or fix their own mistakes unless a lot of noise is made, so we are now prepared to make noise.
Anyone who has argued with FRO or who has any updates to previous cases posted here in the past, if you could post any results or advice, it would be appreciated.
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