Francisco F. v. ADES and Shawn S.
Nov 30, 2011OUTCOME: Affirmed on Appeal
I was the trial attorney who successfully litigated this severance trial, which was held up on appeal. The trial lasted several days, and the father's parental rights to his son were finally terminated ... on the sole ground of abuse. The Court of Appeals found that a Juvenile Court's order that the State need not provide reunification services to a parent in an dependency proceeding under Rule 57, and that order is a final and appealable order governed by time limits. The Court had previously found by clear and convincing evidence that under Section 8-846(A)(B) one of the enumerated grounds under the statute existed in that case, including that "[t]he parent's rights to another child have been terminated, the parent has not successfully addressed issues that lead to the termination and the parent is unable to discharge parental responsibilities." ADES was not required to provide services to the father, and this trial court finding was a final appealable order, which the father did not appeal.
