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Law Times • November 7, 2016 Page 9 www.lawtimesnews.com The portal is open: child support calculation service BY JUDY VAN RHIJN For Law Times O ntario's new child support calculation service is six months old, but there is little awareness of its availability. While family lawyers are sup- portive of the project, they say the lack of communication on the rollout has left them unable to advise their clients of its po- tential. Paul Mazzeo of Mazzeo Law in Vaughan, Ont. has read about the service, but he hasn't seen it in practice. The service is an administrative process to reg- ister and update child support obligations, accessed through an online portal with Service Ontario. "I have spoken to colleagues and not one has heard of it," he says. "If a lot of lawyers don't know, how are other people to know? We're the ones who should be spreading the word." Julie Layne of Layne Family Law PC of Richmond Hill, Ont. has also yet to hear of anyone with clients who have success- fully used the service. "It has not been widely publicized and I haven't seen any [continuing legal education about it]," she says. "Maybe they are working out the glitches. Sometimes, you don't figure out it doesn't work until you launch it to the public." Brendan Crawley, spokesman for Ontario's Ministry of the At- torney General, says the service was launched in April and is available provincewide. "Com- munications have been limited to four regions — Kitchener, London, Thunder Bay and Ot- tawa," he says. "This 'soft launch' was intended to obtain prelimi- nary feedback about user experi- ence before engaging in a wider communications strategy." Steve Benmor of Benmor Family Law Group in Toronto says the launch of the service is a "big deal." "It involves the sharing of information between govern- ment offices — the Ministry of Finance that handles tax returns sharing with the Ministry of Community and Social Ser- vices, which operates the Fam- ily Responsibility Office," says Benmor. Layne explains that "there are two different categories of peo- ple" who can use the service. In one group, there is no current ex- isting court or agreement filed. In the other group, you already have an order or agreement that is automatically readjusted every year after you register. "It is only meant for people who earn the lion's share of in- come as employment income that is easily calculated from a T4 or pay stubs," says Layne. "It's not for the self-employed or people who earn cash, or those who are partners or major shareholders in a business. It's not for people who earn great- er than $150,000, because the Child Support Guidelines don't necessarily apply. It's best placed for support payers who are T4 earners under $150,000." Layne explains that once peo- ple start using the service, people file their income tax return and child support is adjusted on an annual basis. "It takes the step out of going back to court and have lawyers amending orders," she says. "For a large percentage of separated couples, it's an efficient and simple way to get child support adjusted annually." Benmor says the vast majority of people who earn $50,000 an- nually have their income changed by very minor amounts year to year, and that causes very minor adjustments to child support. "Those people should never have to pay for a lawyer," he says. "They spend $5,000 to save or get $500. Where the change in income is significant, recalcula- tion has lots of requirements and exceptions. The service is made for run-of-the-mill cases, not ex- ceptional cases." The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney general reports that, so far, the number of applications is fairly low. "As of Sept. 30, 2016, 100 appli- cations had been submitted using the online service. Twenty-one of these resulted in an enforce- able support obligation," advises Crawley. "Thirty-seven were still in progress. The large majority of completed applications involved recalculations of existing support arrangements." Sharon Silbert of Sharon B. Silbert PC in St. Catharine's, Ont. is one family lawyer who has heard of the recalculation service, and she had the oppor- tunity to do a webinar. "I haven't had a suitable case, but I have some cases where cli- ents will be able to use it in the future," she says. "I have started talking with clients about the possibility of incorporating it in the separation agreement and I have done it once. They are really receptive. One of the questions I am often asked is: 'Do I have to come in and hire a lawyer again every year?' Folks whose cir- cumstances are straightforward enough to use the service are re- ally relieved." Even though she has not had clients who have used the ser- vice yet, Layne says she approves of the concept, adding it "really does give options to take legal fees out of the mix. "The regulations set it out very clearly and they've designed the portal to meet the regula- tions," she says. "Family lawyers, as a bar, need to see how it plays out and give careful consider- ation to whether it is appropriate for their clients." Silbert also applauds the proj- ect. "It is worthwhile from an access to justice perspective because Legal Aid is often not available to people, even if they meet the eligibility criteria, just to vary the amount of child sup- port. It's very hard to get, so this is a good alternative to that," she says. Layne says the amount of child support paid should be ad- justed annually, but sometimes it doesn't happen. "Years go by and all of a sud- den a person who intended all along to pay the right amount of support is faced with large arrears for retroactive child sup- port," she says. "Opting into the recalculation service is a way for parents to ensure they are al- ways on top of paying the right amount of support." Benmor hopes the service will have an impact on the court's workload. "How much it's going to save in court time is yet to be deter- mined," he says. "If it will allow judges a few more minutes on other cases, without being inter- rupted by simple ones, it will be worthwhile." According to Crawley, there are no current plans to expand the Child Support Service. "It would be great if there was a way of expanding the kinds of matters that could take advan- tage of it, but I recognize the challenge associated with that," says Silbert, "especially when both parties are self-employed or have a shared residence ar- rangement. The legal principles for those situations involve the use of discretion, which is hard to translate to a computer appli- cation or web application." Meanwhile, there may be more fanfare about the service. "Because feedback to date has primarily been positive, the ministry is currently considering options to engage in a wider com- munications strategy by the end of the year," advises Crawley. LT FOCUS Steven Benmor says the launch of a new child support calculation service is a 'big deal.' Melanie Larock Adam Delva Jessica Luscombe Associates: Patrick D.Schmidt, Partner George Karahotzitis, Partner Matrimonial Litigation can be highly complex and contentious. When being reasonable is not enough: YOUR ADVANTAGE, in and out of the courtroom. TF: 1.888.223.0448 T: 416.868.3100 www.thomsonrogers.com Thomson, Rogers Lawyers FAMILY LAW GROUP Untitled-7 1 2016-11-02 8:19 AM From spousal support to custody and access, Marta Siemiarczuk brings you the latest on one of the most contentious areas of practice in Family Law

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