Bryant and Rivera (Child support)

This matter concerned an appeal by Bryant against a decision of the Child Support Registrar concerning the administrative assessment of child support payable to Rivera. The dispute centred on the Registrar's acceptance of an estimate of Bryant's income for the purposes of calculating child support.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the Registrar had erred in accepting the estimate of Bryant's income, thereby refusing to refuse the estimate. This required the court to consider the criteria and principles governing the acceptance or refusal of income estimates by the Registrar under the relevant legislation.

The court affirmed the Registrar's decision, finding that the estimate of Bryant's income had been correctly accepted. The reasoning applied was that the Registrar had acted within their statutory powers and had properly considered the available information when forming the estimate. The court applied the principles that the Registrar is empowered to make an estimate of a liable parent's income where actual income cannot be readily determined, and that such estimates should be affirmed unless there is a clear error in the process or the estimate itself is demonstrably unreasonable. The decision under review was therefore affirmed.