If you want to change a final order or written agreement, and the other party does not agree to the change, you need to:

  1. identify and fill out your documents
  2. get your motion to change issued by the court
  3. serve all your documents
  4. file proof of service

Step 1: identify and fill out your documents

To bring a motion to change, you will need:

Depending on your circumstances and what you’re requesting, you will also need:

  • Form 35.1: Affidavit (decision-making responsibility, parenting time, contact), if you are asking to change your parenting time or decision-making responsibility arrangement. This form must be commissioned.
  • If you are asking to change your child support or spousal support arrangement, the following financial documents:
    • Form 13: Financial Statement (Support Claims).
    • Proof of current income (for example, your most recent pay stub, social assistance statement, or pension stub that shows your year-to-date income).
    • Proof of income for the past three taxation years, which must be one of the following:
      • Your Notices of Assessment and any Notices of Reassessment for each of the past three years. If your notices are unavailable for a particular year, you can use an Income and Deductions printout provided by the Canada Revenue Agency. You can contact the Canada Revenue Agency at 1-800-959-8281.
      • Some other proof of income for each of the past three years, if you swear or affirm a statement in your Financial Statement (Form 13) that you are not required to and have chosen not to file an income tax return because of the Canadian Indian Act.
    • You need proof of your income for any other years that you’re asking to change or cancel your support arrears. For example, if you’re asking to change or cancel your arrears since 2014, you need proof of your income for 2014, 2015, 2016, and so on for each year up to and including this year.
    • If you are asking to change your special or extraordinary expenses for a child, you also need to provide proof of these expenses (for example, daycare receipts).
    • Form 13A: Certificate of Financial Disclosure. In this form, you confirm which financial documents you have served on the other party.
    • If your support is registered with the Family Responsibility Office, you need a recent copy of the Director’s Statement of Arrears. Learn more about how to get your Statement of Arrears.
    • A Confirmation of Assignment form, if support may have been assigned to a social service agency.

Learn more about financial disclosure documents.

Step 2: get your motion to change issued by the court

After you complete all of your documents, you have to get them “issued” by the court.

You can submit your documents to the court for issuance online using Justice Services Online or in-person at the courthouse.

A court clerk will issue your Motion to Change by:

  • signing and dating your original motion to change (Form 15) and applying the court seal to the form
  • giving you a court file number that you must write in the box at the top right corner of each page of your forms on every copy

You should make copies of everything that the clerk returns to you in order to serve a copy on every party named in the case and any agency required to be served. Remember to also make a copy for yourself.

First appearance

The clerk will give you a first appearance date if you bring your motion to change in the Ontario Court of Justice or the Family Court Branch of the Superior Court of Justice.

The Superior Court of Justice does not schedule a first appearance when you bring your motion to change. You are responsible for scheduling your first court date, which is usually a case conference

Dispute Resolution Officer Program

The Dispute Resolution Officer (DRO) program operates in twelve Superior Court of Justice or Family Court of the Superior Court of Justice locations:

  • Barrie
  • Brampton
  • Hamilton
  • Kingston
  • Kitchener
  • London
  • Milton
  • Newmarket
  • Oshawa (Durham)
  • Catharines
  • Toronto
  • Welland

DROs are senior family lawyers who hear the initial case conferences for motions to change. If you make your motion to change in a court location where the DRO program operates, your first case conference will be with a DRO rather than a judge.

DROs provide an early, neutral evaluation of your case to help you and the other party:

  • settle or narrow the issues in dispute
  • organize any issues that are not settled
  • share disclosure with each other
  • set next steps in your case

Unlike a judge, DROs cannot make orders (even if you and the other party agree). However, a DRO can help you get a consent order from a judge.

Mandatory Information Program (MIP)

In some circumstances, you and the other party will be required to attend a free Mandatory Information Program (MIP) session. When the clerk issues your motion to change, you may receive two MIP notices – one for you and one for the other party. You will each be scheduled to attend different MIP sessions.

Learn more about MIP sessions.

Step 3: serve all your documents

Once your motion to change has been issued by the court, you will need to serve your documents. Learn more about how to serve your documents.

Serving the responding party

After the clerk issues your motion to change, the following documents must be served on the other party:

Someone other than you (who is at least 18 years old) must serve your documents on the responding party, using special service.

The other party must receive your documents with enough time to complete, serve, and file a response before the first appearance or conference. The other party has 30 calendar days to respond after they receive your motion to change (or 60 calendar days if they were served outside of Canada or the United States).

Serving assignees

When a person receiving child or spousal support payments is in receipt of social assistance benefits, they may assign their support payments to a social service agency (such as Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program). This means that the agency is an assignee that receives the support payments.

If the support payments in your case are going to a social service agency, you must serve all of your motion to change documents that you completed in Step 1 on the agency. A caseworker at the agency must agree to any changes to your support arrangement (even if you and the other party agree).

You do not need to serve any MIP notice or blank forms on the agency.

You must serve your documents on the agency using special or regular service. You can personally serve assignees and do not need to ask someone else to serve the documents for you.

If the agency responds by serving and filing a notice claiming a financial interest in your motion to change, the agency becomes a named responding party in your case.

Step 4: file proof of service

You must complete Form 6B: Affidavit of Service (one for each party that was served). In this form, you give information to prove to the court that your documents were served on the other party and any agencies.

Learn more about the proof of service and how to file it.