Watson v. Div. of Family Servs.

813 A.2d 1101 (Del. 2002) ; Clearinghouse Number: 55106

Description

Delaware Family Courts Must Determine Case-by-Case Whether Indigent Parents in Dependency and Neglect Proceedings Have Right to Appointed Counsel

Abstract

The Delaware Supreme Court ruled that due process requirements of the U.S. and Delaware constitutions required the family court to determine on a case-by-case basis whether indigent parents had a right to counsel at state expense in dependency and neglect proceedings. Plaintiff, a mother with a history of mental-health and drug problems, claimed that a family court termination of her parental rights over her four children was not supported by clear and convincing evidence and not the result of an orderly reasoning process. She also charged that the state’s failure to appoint counsel for her when it filed the dependency and neglect petition violated her due process rights. The supreme court found that the same due process procedural safeguards guaranteed to indigent parents in termination proceedings applied in dependency and neglect proceedings. The petition for termination of parental rights was the end of a process beginning with the dependency and neglect proceeding. The court said that if an attorney were appointed to represent the parents at the termination stage only, the outcome was almost inevitable. The court affirmed that the procedural rights due a party under the state and federal constitutions depended on the interests at stake. The temporary and potentially permanent loss of child custody was a compelling private interest, as were the state’s interests in the welfare of children and in an accurate decision. Here the state violated plaintiff's due process rights by not appointing counsel for her when her substance-abuse and mental-health problems were known during the dependency and neglect proceeding.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Docket Date
2002-12-24 00:00:00+00:00

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