Child Support Lawyer in Ontario

Retroactive child support is a court-ordered award requiring a parent to pay support for a period that has already passed. Ontario courts have the authority to order retroactive support where the payor failed to pay, paid less than they should have, or experienced income increases that were never reported, and that would have raised the required amount.

The leading case in this area established a general rule that retroactive support should ordinarily be awarded going back three years from the date a formal claim is made, though courts retain the discretion to go further where the payor’s conduct warrants it. Blameworthy conduct, such as deliberately hiding income or refusing to respond to requests for financial disclosure, can extend the period the court is willing to look back on.

Retroactive child support claims in Ontario can arise from:

• Periods where no support was paid despite a legal obligation
• Income increases that the paying parent failed to disclose
• Situations where no formal order or agreement was ever put in place
• Prior orders set at artificially low amounts due to incomplete financial information

If support was owed and not paid, those amounts do not simply disappear. Natalia Denchik can review your situation and advise on whether a retroactive claim applies and what it is likely worth.

Child support orders and agreements are not permanent. When the paying parent’s income rises, the recipient parent has the right to seek a variation to increase the amount of support paid. Ontario law requires both parents to exchange updated financial disclosure annually, and where income has increased, the table amount typically increases with it.

An increased child support claim may be necessary in several situations. The paying parent may have received a significant raise, started a new, higher-paying job, or grown a business since the original order was made. In other cases, the paying parent simply stopped providing annual income disclosure, and the receiving parent only discovered the increase years later.

Courts have the authority to vary an existing order going back to a date that reflects when the change in circumstances actually occurred, not just when the claim was filed. This means an increased child support claim can carry both a prospective component, adjusting support going forward, and a retroactive component for the period the higher amount should have been paid but was not.

A variation application to increase child support may address:

• Annual income increases are not reflected in the current order
• A change in employment or business income since the original calculation
• Years of missed disclosure where income was higher than the order assumed
• Section 7 expenses that have grown and are no longer fairly reflected in the existing agreement

The variation process requires updated financial disclosure from both parties. Where the paying parent resists providing this, there are legal tools available to compel it. Natalia Denchik advises clients at every stage of the variation process, from the initial income review through to a finalized new order or agreement.