Strategies to Reduce Delay Second Edition

BY Ann L. Keith and Carol R. Flango

KF 547 K45 2003 KF 59 3 K45 200 3 c.3 I

BY Ann L. Keith and Carol R. Flango

Library National Centor fcr State Courts 300 Ncwpcrt Ave. Williamsburg, VA 23 185

This paper has been published by the National Center for State Courts -- to present current work from the organization’s staff, developed in cooperation with the courts and court leadership organizations. Support from the states along with seminar and conference fees, grants, contracts, and private support fund the mission of NCSC-to help courts r17zprovingthe ad’7zinist1~ationOf improve judicial administration by providing information, research, .justice through leadership and education, and consulting services. For more information visit NCSC’s service to state courts Web site at www.ncsconline.org. 0 2002, 2003 National Center for State Courts

ISBN: 0-89656-229-8

The first edition of this book was developed by the National Center for State Courts under a grant From the State Justice Institute (No. SJI-00-N-209). The points of view expressed do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the National Center for State Courts or the State Justice Institute. Expediting Dependency Appeals: Strategies to Reduce DeOay Second Edition

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION

INTRODUCTION

SECTION I: PROJECT OVERVIEW

SECTION II: PROMISING PRACTICES IN EXPEDITING PERMANENCY: EIGHT STEPS 1. Assess the Appellate Environment 11. Appoint a Leader 111. Assemble a Task Force 1V Develop a Plan c/: Drafta Rule VI. Implement Internal Operating Procedures VI/. Consider Strategies to lmprove the Appellate Process Vlll. Review and Refine the Process

SECTION 111: STATE COURT HIGHLIGHTS

APPENDIX A: STATE AND TRIAL COURT CONTACTS APPENDIX B: TELEPHONE SURVEY APPENDIX C: A PROCESS FOR EXPEDITING DEPENDENCY APPEALS APPENDIX D: STATE STATUTES AND COURT RULES APPENDIX E: IOWA’S PETITION AND RESPONSE FORMS

I i

www.ncsconline.org 0 iii Advisory Committee for the First Edition

The Honorable Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Chair Alexander McNeil Justice Court Administrator The Supreme Court of Ohio The Appeals Court 30 E. Broad Street. I500 New Courthouse Columbus, OH 43266-041 9 Boston, MA 02108

Leslie D. Gradet Edward McSweeney National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks Staff Attorney Maryland Court of Special Appeals Vermont Supreme Court 36 1 Rowe Boulevard 109 State Street Annapolis, MD 21301 Montpelier, VT 05609-0801

Cy Gurney, MSW The Honorable Justice Charlotte Annc Perrctta Regional Administrator Commonwealth of Massachusetts North Carolina Guardian ad Litem Services Division The Appeals Court Superior Court Judges Chambers 1500 New Courthouse Durham County Judicial Building, 6th Floor Boston, MA 02 108 201 E. Main Street Durham, NC 27701 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Members

Mary V. Mentaberry The Honorable Sharon McCully Director Third District Juvenile Court Permanency Planning for Children Department 450 S. State Street, Suite 209 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Salt Lake City, UT 841 14-04431 PO. Box 8970 Reno, NV 89507 National Center for State Courts Ted Rubin Carol R. Flango Consultant Project Director Toni Knorr Ann L. Keith Program Specialist Court Research Associate Deborah Siege1 Dawn Rubio Intern Senior Court Management Consultant State Justice Institute Ohia Grant SJI Project Monitor 1650 King Street, Suite 600 Alexandria, VA 223 14 iv + Expediting Dependency Appeals The National Center for State Courts and the State Justice Institute originally published Expediting Dependency Appeals: Strategies to Reduce Delay in fall 2002. One thousand copies were distributed to the chief justices, state court administrators, and court improvement coordinators in every state. An online version was also published on the National Center’s Web site: www.ncsconline. org/WC/PubIications/KIS-ExpDepAppealsPub.pdf.

Because of the urgent need to share effective strategies that reduce the time children spend without a permanent home, the National Center has updated the first edition to include revised court rules and procedures states have shared with our project since its first release. This second edition of Expediting Dependency Appeals: Strategies to Reduce Delay includes revised rules and forms from Iowa’s unique appellate procedures for children in need of assistance (CINA) and termination of parental rights (TPR) cases. We also welcome Idaho to the company of forty-three states that use aspects of an expedited appellate procedure for cases involving children.

We encourage states to share their progress in expediting dependency appeals and will post accomplishments on the National Center’s Web site. For example, the Michigan Court of Appeals’ Dependency Appeals Work Group recently proposed significant reforms in court rules and adopted reforms in their appellate practices. As a product of Michigan’s concerted efforts to address this critical area, the court of appeals has reduced its time to dispose of these cases by forty-six days.

We hope that state courts and those who are dedicated to ensuring permanency for children will find this second edition helpful in reducing the time children spend in limbo before crossing the threshold into permanent homes.

www.ncsconline.org + v D

This report on expediting dependency appeals is the result of a collaboration between the National Center for State Courts and the State Justice Institute, with information, contributions, and assislance fiom the appellate courts in all fifty states (see Appendix A).

The project’s advisory committee included representatives from state supreme courts, intermediate appellate courts, a juvenile court, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The committee analyzed surveys of the state courts and developed a process for appellate courts to use when implementing an expedited procedure for dependency appeals. In addition to the conimittee members and state court contacts, the following individuals contributed their expertise and experiences: Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye of the New York Court of Appeals contributed suggestions to the process for expediting dependency appeals and included the project on the Conference of Chief Justices’ Child Welfare Committee’s agenda, and Connie Crim, clerk to Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Supreme Court of Ohio, assisted with the coordination and communication between the National Center and Justice Stratton. The authors would also like to express their appreciation to the Appeals Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for their hospitality during the project’s site visit-in particular, to Associate Justice Charlotte Anne Perretta, Chief Judge Christopher Arnistrong, Court Administrator Alex McNeil, Clerk of Court Ashley Ahearn, and Assistant Clerk Chris Micchia.

Dr. Victor E. Flango, vice-president of the National Center, presented the importance of outcome measures to the project’s committee and participated in the site visit to the Appeals Court of thc Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Bill Hewitt, principal court research consultant at the National Center, contributed ideas and suggestions to the project regarding transcript and record production. The National Center’s Education and Technology Center’s Ray Foster and Kevin Mittler answered technical questions about courtroom technology for the committee during their meeting in Williamsburg. Sara Lewis and Chuck Campbell copyedited the final publication and coordinated its printing.

Finally, we are very gratehl for the State Justice Institute’s support and to Ohia Grant, project monitor, for her help, guidance, and enduring patience to see this project to completion.

vi 0 Expediting Dependency Appeals We are very pleased to present the final report on Expediting Dependency Appeals: Strategies to Reduce Delay. This project has been exciting and rewarding, as we have studied what different states are doing to expedite appeals while, at the same time, challenging the states to get started now if they do not have such an effort already under way.

The federal government enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) in 1997 to reduce the length of time courts take to find permanent homes for children removed from the custody of their birth parents. The goal is to prevent these children from languishing in the foster care system. Although the focus of the ASFA legislation is on the trial court level, the appeals process is part of the permanency process. An appeal may considerably extend a child’s placement in foster care. While several months or a year may seem a reasonable period for an appeals process to an adult, it is an eternity in the life of a child.

Because we recognized the delay in permanency an appeal can cause, we wanted to study the efforts states have already undertaken. How did they get started? What were their roadblocks? How did they succeed?

This report is the result of that research and, hopefully, a useful tool that you can use to start your efforts or improve your existing plan. It is a labor of love because the lives of these children are so precious and their moments in childhood must not be wasted. Please join me in meeting this challenge.

The Honorable Evelyn L. Stratton Justice Ohio Supreme Court

www.ncsconline.org vii Expediting Dependency Appeals: stuategies to Reduce Delay Second Edition

Cases involving termination of parental rights and adoption issues are about the lives of children, rather than contracts, insurance, business disputes, or water rights. The legal system views these cases as numbers on a docket. However, to a child, waiting for a resolution seems like forever-an eternity with no real family and no sense of belonging. Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Supreme Court of Ohio, “Expediting the Adoption Process at the Appellate Level,” Capital University Law Review 28 (1 999): 12 1.

Timeliness is a consideration in the resolution of all court disputes, but it is particularly important when children are involved and forced to remain in unstable, and perhaps violent, situations. It is important for a child’s concept of time to either restore stability to a family or establish permanency by another means. “The child’s sense-of-time guideline would require decision-makers to act with ‘all deliberate speed’ to maximize each child’s opportunity to restore stability to an existing relationship or to facilitate the establishment of new relationships to ‘replace old ones.”” All trial and appellate courts handling family issues should consider the timely resolution of disputes, especially in cases involving children, to be a performance goal. Timely case resolution requires aggressive case management. From intake to final appeal, courts need to assign, schedule, and track a child’s progress through the court system.

As trial courts have become more cognizant of children’s needs, they have tightened the time frames for moving dependency cases through the system.* Only recently, however, has attention turned to appeals involving children. Permanency for a child cannot be achieved if the child’s case languishes in the appellate system.

In addition to handling hearings efficiently and effectively, rcducing continuances, and using differentiated case management at the trial level, the appellate process must be reviewed and streamlined to reduce delay. Establishing time frames for processing these appeals helps ensure that there is no impediment to permanency for children. Techniques to expedite the appellate process include requiring that child welfare cases are briefed and decided promptly and dealing with problems that arise during the process quickly and fairly, with consistent application of explicit policies. The pace for dependency appeals is determined by the time it takes to prepare the transcript, brief the case, schedule arguments, and handle continuances, as well as by the workload of the appellate court.3

The appellate process, like many current lower-court practices, is steeped in tradition. While many of the traditions work very well for the vast majority of appeals, the same traditions may dam- age children involved in dependency and neglect appeals4 Some appellate courts are setting aside some established procedures and developing special methods to expedite dependency cases. Many courts are expediting appeals concerning relinquishment, adoption, dependency, and abuse and neglect cases by limiting time extensions and setting specific time goals to ensure that appeals arc resolved within a prescribed short period of time.s www.ncsconline.org 0 1 Other SJI-fknded projects cover civil and criminal appeals as well as dependency cases, but have not examined the special time requirements of dependency cases.6 The Expediting Dependency Appeals project focused on how appellate courts handle dependency and child abuse and neglect cases by examining these questions:

0 How did appellate courts that expedite dependency appeals design their process? 0 How well is the expedited appeals system working? 0 Are children moving through the entire court system more quickly because of the expedited appellate process?

This project staff examined the practices that state appellate courts use to expedite dependency appeals through a survey of appellate courts in each state (see Appendix B). The research findings are now available for other courts to examine as they consider setting up or improving their own systcm.

The first section of this book describes all expedited appeals procedures for dependency cases in state courts and reviews their implementation processes. The second section provides eight steps any appellate court can follow to implement an expedited appeals process. The third section reports on the appellate court processes for expediting dependency appeals in Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Vermont, and Virginia. It is important to note that while most state appellate courts are expediting some type of dependency appeals, there are other case types that may also require expedition. This guide is intended to make the implementation process comprehensive and less difficult. Finally, a copy of all the state rules and statutes for expediting dependency appeals is provided as an appcndix, with Web site addresses to access more information about particular states. A particularly useful strategy in implementing an expedited process is for a representative from one appellate state court to contact an appellate court representative in another state that has a statute or court rule that may be adapted for use in the state that lacks an expedited process.

This book is the first source of comprehensive information on expedited appeals for dependency cases. It helps answer questions on what the state appellate courts can do to expedite those cases involving children and provides needed information for courts interested in instituting the proccss or in reforming and improving present practices. We also hope to raise the awareness of state trial courts of their responsibilities in quickly preparing these cases for the appellate courts.

NOTES

’ National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Resource Guidelines: lmproving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases (Reno, NV: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, 1995), and Robert Lancour, Diane Boyd Rauber, and Mark Hardin, State Court Assessments 79951998: Dependency Proceedings, vol. 4, Timely Judicial Decisionmaking (Washington, DC: American Bar Assocation Center on Children and the Law, 1999). Diane Boyd Rauber, Sharon S. England, and Veronica Hemrich (ed.), Court lmprovement Progress Report 7999 (Washington, DC: American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, 1999). “The Vermont State Initiative on Protecting Abused and Neglected Children: A Plan to Achieve Permanency for Abused and Neglected Children in State Custody,” August 1997. See also Roger A. Hanson, Appellate Court Performance Standards and Measures (Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts, 1999). Dependency cases include child abuse and neglect, child in need of assistance (CINA), custody, termination of parental rights (TPR), and adoption cases. See pp. 6-7 for suggested guidelines for dependency appeals from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and the American Bar Association (ABA). See Roger A. Hanson, Time on Appeal (Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts, 1996), and Court Statistics Project, State Court Caseload Statistics. 2000 (Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts, 2001).

2 + Expediting Dependency Appeals The National Center for State Courts’ staff used a comprehensive process to determine the status of expediting dependency appeals in the state courts. The advisory committee chair, Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton of the Supreme Court of Ohio, requested that each state’s chief justice appoint a contact person to the project. Follow-up let- Chart A ters thanked the chief Primary State Contacts for Information on Expedited Appeals justices for appointing a Supreme Court Justice 114 contact person or reminded them to make an appointment. Clerk of Court p9; National Center staff Attorney contacted fourteen supreme court justices, Appellate Judge nine clerks of court, CIP Coordinator eight attorneys, seven appellate judges, five JuvenilelFamily Court Judge court improvement coordinators, four juvenile Other 414 and family court judges, 0 10 20 30 40 0 and other court person- Number of Contacts nel (see Chart A). These contacts were used throughout the project.

Survey of Courts that Are Expediting Dependency Appeals

Project staff examined the system models that various states use to expedite appeals. The policy, legislation, or other guidelines state legislatures and local court systems use to establish their system models were also identified.

After studying the models and how they were implemented, the project conducted a telephone survey to examine the different procedures used by an appellate court in each state for expediting dependency appeals (see Appendix B). These procedures included the different time segments for an appellate case; the screening system used at the appellate court for dependcncy cases; the assignment of dependency cases to a differentiated track, rather than handling all cases in the same manner; production of regular caseflow reports; appointment of parents’ counsel to first review the merits of appeals, rather

www.ncsconline.org 0 3 Chart B Status of Expedited Procedures as of July 2003

0 Reports aspects of an expedited appellate procedure-44 states 3 0 Does not have any aspects of an expedited appellate procedure4 states Chart C Expedited Dependency Appeal Case Types

I I I I TPR - J 31 I I I I I I Abuse 8. Neglect - I I I I Adoption - ‘19 I 1 I I I I Custody - I 19 I I I I CHINS - 15 I I I I Other -, I 114 I I 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Number of States

Chart D Number of Dependency Appeal Types Expedited by State Number of Appeal Types by State 12 , I -I I

4 0 Expediting Dependency Appeals than just to pursue appeals; use of status conferences; the use of settlement conferences and mediation; and procedures used for handling frivolous appeals.’

Extensive telephone surveys were completed on the expedition process, and the contact person verified the accuracy of the document. Forty-four states reported at least some aspects of an expedited appellate procedure, and six states reported not having any type of expedited appellate procedure (see Chart B).

The advisory committee analyzed the survey and site visit data and developed outlines for an appellate court guide to establishing expedited dependency appeals. The final product was distributed to the state appellate courts and project contacts (see Appendix C).

Expedited Dependency Appeal Case Types

Case types that may be classified as dependency appeals include termination of parental rights, abuse and neglect, adoption, custody, children in need of assistance, domestic violence actions with custody issues, and custody, guardianship of a minor, and visitation appeals. Many states expedite more than one case type (see Chart C). In fact, most states expedite two or more case types, and many expedite any appeal that involves a child-related issue (see Chart D).

Legal Process for the Expedition of Dependency Appeals by State

The legal process each state uses to expedite Chart E dependency appeals may be an internal operat- Legal Process for Expedition of Dependency Appeals by State ing procedure (IOP), court rule, or statute (see 1 Chart E).2 Georgia has a constitutional amendment that governs the expedition of termination of parental rights, custody, children in need of assistance, and abuse and neglect appeals. The twenty-one states that use an internal operating procedure report that the process is more flexible and that specific 0Court Rule aspects of the process may be assigned to spe- Statute cific individuals. States that have formalized an expedited process with a court rule (twenty- three states), statute (fifteen states), or constitutional amendment (one state) chose those options to ensure that appeals are routinely and formally expedited by law. However, many of the rules and statutes are vaguc; for example, “a termination of parental rights appeal should be expedited,” without guidance as to how this should be done.

NOTES ’ In certain states, it appears that appeals are filed automatically whenever the trial court terminates parental rights. Some studies of appeals found many of these appeals to be frivolous and that this practice severely increased the length and uncertainty of permanent placements for children. Some states have more than one legal process. For example, Georgia has a constitutional amendment, state statute, and internal operating procedures.

www.ncsconline.org 5 I I

Interviews with state contacts revealed that appellate courts use diverse strategies to expedite dependency appeals. The project’s committee discussed the results from the telephone interviews, as well as the committee members’ experiences within their own appellate courts, and designed a process for expediting dependency appeals that includes the successful strategies reported by the states. The committee also produced a guidebook, A Pvocess fov Expediting Dependency Appeals, which may be obtained from the National Center for State Courts (see Appendix C).

The recommended process for expediting dependency appeals involves eight steps: assess the appellate environment, appoint a leader, assemble a task force, develop a plan, draft a rule, implement internal operating procedures, consider strategies to improve the appellate process, and review and refine the appellate process.

1. Assess the Appellate Environment

The first step in establishing a procedure for expediting appeals is to assess the appellate environment. Before making changes to appellate procedures, courts should examine how they are currently handling dependency appeals in the state and identify what they are doing well to reduce delay for children seeking permanent placement.

After identifying positive steps the state has made to reduce delay, the courts need to identify and assess any roadblocks and causes of delay. Specifically, the courts should ask what steps in the appellate process are causing delay for children seeking permanent placement. This may be accomplished by examining caseflow statistics and making comparisons with the ABA- and NCJFCJ-suggested guidelines for each step of the appeal.’

Finally, the appellate courts must establish and create an awareness of the need for change in the process for handling dependency cases. Courts may publish caseflow statistics and other findings f?om their assessment of the appellate environment. They may also consider writing articles describ- ing the consequences of appellate delay.2

11. Appoint a Leader

Once the courts complete an assessment of appellate procedures and establish an awareness of the need to expedite dependency appcals, the state should appoint a leader to create expedited procedures.

www.ncsconline.org 0 7 Trial court’s TPR Order is distributed to the parties.

Notice of Appeal filed within a maximum of 10 days. I Record transmitted from the trial court to the appellate court within a maximum of 20 days.

Appellant Brief is filed withiri a niaximuni of 20 days.

Appellee Brief is filed within a maximum of IS days.

If oral arguments are required, the appellate court sets the Hearing within a maximum of 20 days.

The appellate court entry of Judgment is completed and distributed to parties within a maximum of 90 dajls either from the filing of appellee briefs, when oral arguments are not required, or From the hearing on oral arguments.

Total: 175 Days

Note: ABA Court Rules 1 15 (Rule 9 1 and Commentary): “These time Frames contemplate a 175- day lapse from the filing of the notice of appeal to the court’s decision. This acceleration is notable, given that the majority of cases currently take a year or more in many jurisdictions.”

8 + Expediting Dependency Appeals Trial court’s TPR Order is distributed to the parties. I Appeal filed within a maximum of 30 days.

Record transmitted from the trial court to the appellate court within a maximum of 30 days.

Appellant Brief is filed within a maximum qf 20 days.

Appellee Brief is filed within a maximum of 10 days.

If oral arguments are required, the appellate court sets the Hearing within a maximum of 30 days.

The appellate court entry of Judgment is completed and distributed to parties within a maximum of 30 days either from the filing of appellee briefs, when oral arguments are not required, or from the hearing on oral arguments.

Total: 150 Days

Note: Whenever possible, it is in the child’s best interest to reduce the time frames even further. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Adoption and Permanency Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases (Reno, Nv: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, 2000).

www.ncsconline.org 9 A leader must be passionate about expediting dependency cases and may be a justice, an appellate judge, a court administrator, a staff attorney, or a court improvement project leader.3 It is crucial that the leader have authority to create change and accountability for the appellate process and to convene a task force with all stakeholders.

Ill. Assemble a Task Force

Once installed, the leader will assemble a task force. The task force should represent all stakeholders in the appellate process and those involved in dependency cases. An ideal task force would include the following members:

e Justice or appellate judge e Clerks, at both the trial and appellate levels e Court administrator e Trial judge e Court improvement project leader e Attorneys for the state and parents e Guardians ad litem e Court-appointed special advocates (CASAs) e Court reporters or transcribers e Legislators (if the task force actions require legislation)

IU Develop a Plan

The first goal of the task force will be to develop a plan for expediting dependency appeals. The task force will need to identify sources of delay, which may arise from the findings made during the assess the appellate environment stage. After the sources are identified, the task force should examine ways to reduce delay (see “Consider Strategies to Improve to the Appellate Process.”)

An important consideration in choosing expedition strategies is how to make the process uniform throughout the state. For example, the courts should use the same forms and rules in each appellate district to facilitate caseflow. Structural issues should also be addressed to ensure that the state’s intermediate appellate courts have similar procedures.

Because the task force involves representatives of all stakeholders, they should be able to encourage cooperation from their colleagues for new procedures. The representatives will need to improve communication between the court and those who process dependency appeals to facilitate this goal. Suggestions to encourage communication include distributing a newsletter on the status of appeals at regular intervals, holding brown-bag status meetings, and asking for feedback and suggestions.

The task force should conduct regular meetings during and after the development stage to refine the process. Each member may be assigned specific tasks, as homework to be completed before the next meeting, to keep the process moving. One homework assignment may be to look at other states for examples of what does and does not work in their expedited procedures.

10 Expediting Dependency Appeals Finally, the task force should develop outcome measures to analyze how the strategies reduce delay. Once the expedited process is implemented, the task force must continue to assess and measure the process at regular intervals to ensure that it is effective. Keeping statistics on how quickly courts are processing dependency cases is also recommended.

\II Draft a Rule

After the task force identifies the strategies that it will implement to reduce delay, it will need to draft a rule to formalize the procedure. The task force may review or copy rules and statutes in effect in other state^.^ Drafting a statute or court rule gives the force of law and permanency to the expedited process.

VI. Implement Internal Operating Procedures

The task force should draft internal operating procedures (IOPs) to make the statute or rule effective and workable. IOPs are informal rules or guidelines that the court uses to process appeals. The IOPs may specifically assign tasks to certain persons. For example:

Mr. Smith will contact the trial court thirty days after the notice of appeal is filed to check on the status of the transcripts. Judge Jones will write a screening memo on the appeal within five days of the filing of the notice of appeal..

VI/. Consider Strategies to Improve the Appellate Process

The state appellate courts offered the following strategies to decrease delay at each stage of the appellate process, beginning with Notice ofAppeal and ending with Posting of Decisions. It is recommended that a state task force review these strategies for those that best suit their appellate court’s individual needs. Initially, a task force may want to concentrate on one area of the appellate process to measure whether a strategy is effective and add new strategies to refine the process.

Notice of Appeal

A universal suggestion to improve the appellate process is to invest in an efficient, computerized case management system that can track an appeal from the trial level to the court of last resort. The clerks from the trial and appellate courts need to coordinate procedures and strive to transfer the record from the trial court to the appellate court expeditiously.

Both the party and attorney should sign the notice of appeal. Often, an attorney will automatically initiate an appeal without consulting the client. Requiring the party’s signature reduces the number of appeals because they are not automatically filed.

Attorneys should indicate on the notice of appeal that the appeal is a dependency matter. The transcript should be ordered at the same time the notice of appeal is filed. Courts should make sure that appellate mediation does not freeze appellate timelines and delay the appeal.

www.ncsconline.org + 11 Transcripts and the Record

In many states, assembling the record and preparing transcripts is a primary cause of delay in dependency appeals. Often, the appellate court has no control over dependency case transcripts, and the trial court does not give these transcripts priority.

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ proposed appellate time lines suggest that the trial court transmit the record to the appellate court within a maximum of thirty days. The American Bar Association’s proposed appellate time lines recommend that the trial court transmit the record to the appellate court within a maximum of twenty days.

In the National Center for State Courts’ survey of appellate courts, four states reported that the record is completed in less than thirty days. Nine states reportedly take thirty days; twenty-one states range from thirty to sixty days from notice of appeal to complete record; seven states average sixty to ninety days; and two states reported that the record takes more than ninety days to complete (seven stales did not report an average time). Most states have a mandatory production time frame by rule, but the time may be extended by motion. In some cases, multiple extensions may be granted, further extend- ing delay. Some states report that extensions are regularly and leniently granted, while other states grant extensions only under extraordinary circumstances and carefully scrutinize extension requests in dependency cases.

Computer-A ided Transcription (CA

Courts have had access to computer-aided transcription (CAT) since 198 1. Today, CAT has evolved into an affordable and reliable technology, and reporter skills in using CAT have increased as the technology improves.

CAT uses a computer to automate the reading-and-translating process of shorthand stenotype notes into English. Court reporters record the spoken words on a stenotype machine, producing the shorthand notes. Keystrokes are recorded on both the traditional folded paper tape and an electronic storage disk. The disk is removed from the stenotype machine and inserted into a computer’s disk drive. CAT software converts the stenographic notes into English written text. The reporter then edits the transcript to ensure ac~uracy.~

CAT systems are now capable of simultaneously translating the reporter’s shorthand notes into English while they are written. The production of this simultaneous record is called “real-time translation.” Real-time transcripts are shown on a screen to all courtroom participants as they are iccorded by the court reporter. The ability to produce a usable typed transcript very quickly through CAT technology should make it possible to prepare a complete record in a matter of days or even hourseG

Real-time reporting software is a standard feature on all CAT programs, but requires more skill on behalf of the reporter. The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) requires that real-time reporters be tested and certified as real-time reporters: “Reporters need to consistently reach a 96 percent accuracy rate in translation before they are truly qualified for real-time.”7

Electronic Filing of Records

The record includes the trial transcript, an index to the record, a chronological list of all of the events in the trial court, the pleadings of the parties, and any written decisions prepared by the trial judge. 12 Expediting Dependency Appeals The record may also include motion papers filed in the trial court, exhibits admitted or offered for admission into evidence, and other documents.8

The trial court clerk's staff usually compiles the record. The court clerk's office prepares either the original or copies of court documents in a file jacket or box and mails the package to the appellate court clerk. This process is another source of delay because it is time-consuming and labor intensive, and requires substantial mailing, copying, and storage costs. Electronic recordkeeping substantially reduces delay in producing the trial rec01-d.~

An advantage of a digital record is that it can be easily and inexpensively stored and transmitted.'" Judges, counsel, and even a jury during deliberations may readily access the record during and afier trial. However, using an electronic record brings up issues regarding privacy, document certification, uniform standards, and systems integration. For example:

0 What are the obligations of the court when records are easily available on a desktop computer as opposed to manually digging through court records? 0 Where is the balancing point between the Freedom of Information Act and the individual right of privacy? 0 How do we know a document is authentic? 0 What about lawyers who need to file documents with multiple courts, all demanding different formats?' '

Additional strategies to improve the timeliness of transcript production include:

0 The court may require the clerk, instead of the parties or attorneys, to order the transcripts when the notice of appeal is filed, thereby streamlining the procedure and making it more automatic. 0 The state courts should assess funding barriers to transcript production that affect the pur- chase of technology and the hiring and salaries of reporters and transcribers. 0 The courts may devise penalties for attorneys, reporters, and transcribers who do not meet time lines for transcript production. 0 Some courts waive the transcript if the appeal is solely based on a legal issue by using a summary process, requiring the attorneys to file an agreed statement of the facts, or ordering only portions of the record that apply to the legal issue.

Briefing

Briefing schedules may be shortened for dependency appeals. For example, Oklahoma's briefing schedule for expedited appeals is twenty days for the appellant's brief, fifteen days for the appellee's brief, and ten days for a reply brief. Extensions to the briefing schedule should be limited and granted in only extraordinary circumstances. The court should monitor attorneys and briefing schedules and follow through and enforce time lines. Courts may further reduce delay by setting an appeal for argument or conference on the same day the appeal is fully briefed.

Oral Argument and Conferencing

The preparation and hearing of an oral argument can be time-consuming. Courts may grant oral argument only when there are significant legal questions at issue. Oral argument should be set as soon as

www.ncsconline.org 13 the appeal is fully briefed, and dependency appeals should get priority in scheduling oral arguments and conferencing. Some courts save spaces on their calendar for expedited cases.

Decisions

In some cases, decisions may be issued straight from the bench. If that is impracticable, justices can vote on the case the day it is argued or conferenced to reduce delay. Dependency appeals should be drafted before a11 other opinions, and time limits may be placed on judges’ writing of opinions.

A specialized editor may be assigned to edit dependency opinions. An editor or clerk that is familiar with writing dependency opinions may finish the editing process faster than one who rarely works on a dependency appeal.

Posting of Decisions

Appellate courts should give trial courts clear, concise direction on when an appeal is remanded or rescripted. The appellate court must give the attorneys and trial court immediate notice about the status of the case.

Other Strategies

Assign a staff attorney to micromanage dependency appeals on a weekly basis from notice of appeal to decision. Develop a tracking system for dependency appeals. Route dependency appeals in a red envelope to give all involved parties notice that the appeal is involved in an expedited process. Include regularly updated photos of the child in the court file to show the passage of time. Devise and implement penalties for delay. For example, if the case is not timely briefed, the court may dismiss the appeal. The court may also levy fines on delinquent reporters, transcribers, and attorneys or remove them from the appointment list. The wages of delinquent actors in the process may be withheld.

VIII. Review and Refine the Process

The state task force may request hnding to ensure that the expedited process is effective. Funding may support a staff person at the appellate level who acts as a central contact to enforce rules and internal operating procedures; a staff person at the trial court level to track cases preparing for appeal; or specialized court-appointed attorneys at the appellate level to expedite dependency appeals and increase their efficiency and quality.

Regular evaluation of the expedited process is critical to ensure success. The task force should uniformly collect and use statistical data to analyze outcome measures. The task force can measure and refine internal operating procedures using this data. Outcomes and evaluations should be shared with stakeholders and the community to promote the importance of expediting permanency for children.

14 Expediting Dependency Appeals Training in the expedited procedures should involve all stakeholders: justices, judges, attorneys, guardians ad litem, CASAs, court administrators, and clerks. Training may take place at national committee meetings to encourage communication among these stakeholders, including meetings of the Conference of Chief Justices, Conference of State Court Administrators, National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks, National Association for Court Management, National Association of State Judicial Educators, and the guardians ad litem and CASAs associations. Such training could be conducted online, as well (for example, through the National Center for State Courts’ Education and Technology Center).

States can establish mentor and partner relationships for sharing information. For example, over fifty judges from Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin met at a tristate seminar to discuss the expedition of dependency appeals.

Expectations for the Trial Courts

During the process of developing a guide for states to implement an expedited procedure for dependency appeals, the committee recognized several functions of the trial courts that could be streamlined. The following is a list of trial court expectations that may be used in a partnership between the trial and appellate courts to develop more-efficient procedures.

0 Assign a staff attorney to micromanage dependency appeals on a weekly basis from notice of appeal to decision.

0 Trial courts should use the one-family/one-judge model so dependency cases do not spend time between several trial judges, who each spend time learning about the case.

0 Trial courts should use best trial court practices to avoid appeals on matters of procedure.

0 Courts should establish and enforce timelines for dependency trials.

0 Courts should encourage mediation.

0 Judges should make decisions from the bench instead of taking cases on advisement.

0 Trial judges must hlly describe their reasoning and findings in cases to avoid appeal.

0 Attorneys should be required to prepare findings and conclusions of law.

0 Final orders should be signed and distributed as soon as they are prepared.

0 Court clerks should be alerted to the need to expedite the processing of notices of appeal and records in dependency cases.

0 A specific clerk should be assigned to prepare dependency files for appeal.

0 Trial court counsel should be encouraged to remain on the case for the appeal to avoid time being spent by a new attorney researching the case.

0 Both trial courts and appellate courts must comply strictly with all time requirements for each step of the process.

Developed by Judge Sharon McCully, Third District Juvenile Court, Salt Lake City, Utah.

www.ncsconline.org + 15 NOTES See ABA- and NCJFCJ-proposed timelines on pp. 6-7 . See Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Supreme Court of Ohio, "Expediting the Adoption Process at the Appellate Level," Capifal University Law Review 28 (1999): 121. Examples of such leaders include Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Ohio Supreme Court; Justice Charlotte Anne Peretta, Appeals Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Sandrs Mengel, chief deputy clerk, Michigan Court of Appeals; Ed McSweeney, staff attorney, Vermont Supreme Court, and Lilia Hopper, court improvement project director, Virginia. See Appendix D, or contact the National Center for State Courts for examples and samples of rules and Statutes at http://www.ncsconline.orgNVCIPublications/KlS-ExpDepStateLinksPub.pdf. Richard B. Hoffman and Barry Mahoney, Managing Caseflow in State lntermediate Appellate Courts: What Mechanisms, Practices, and Procedures Can Work to Reduce Delay? (Denver: Justice Management Institute, 2001). pp. 24-28. Id. William E. Hewitt and Jill 8. Levy, Computer-Aided Transcription: Current Technology and Court Applications (Williamsburg. VA: National Center for State Courts, 1994), p. 48. Hoffman and Mahoney, Managing Caseflow, pp. 24-28. Id.

lo Frederic I. Lederer. "The Courtroom as a Stop on the Information Superhighway," Australian Journal of Law Reform 4 (1998): 71.

l1 Id.

16 Expediting Dependency Appeals I I

Some specific illustrations of how states are expediting dependency appeals are described below: Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Vermont, and Virginia.’

Georgia

The appellate courts of Georgia are required to expedite appeals both constitutionally and statutorily. Additionally, the Court of Appeals of Georgia has internal operating procedures that require expedition in certain cases. The constitutional mandate in article 6, section 9, paragraph 2 of the state constitution requires: “The Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals shall dispose of every case at the term for which it is entered on the court’s docket for hearing or at the next term.” If the appellate court fails to dispose of an appeal within the two terms, the trial court’s decision is affirmed by operation of law, and the court loses jurisdiction to hear the appeaL2 To date, the court of appeals has never allowed a case to be affirmed by operation of law. Depending on exactly when a case is docketed, the appellate courts would have a minimum of five-and-a-half to six months or ten-and-a-half to eleven months to dispose of an appeal.

Georgia has a statutory requirement for disposing of appeals. In civil cases in which the state is a plaintiff, the appellate court shall give preference to such cases over all other cases still pending3 This statute affects dependency cases that involve child abuse and neglect, children in need of assistance (CINA), and some termination of parental rights and custody appeals.

Finally, Georgia has initiated internal operating procedures that require the expedition of cases involving child custody (termination of parental rights, custody, children in need of assistance, and abuse and neglect), but there are no specific guidelines for the process. In general terms, dependency appeals are given pri~rity.~The standard briefing schedule is twenty days for the appellant’s brief, forty days for the appellee’s brief, and ten days for the appellant’s reply brief. The briefing schedule is not shortened for dependency cases. Courts may grant one extension of up to twenty days. Oral argument is waived in 80 percent of the appeals, and written opinions are published four to five months after cases are fully briefed.

Iowa

Iowa implemented new expedited procedures for termination of parental rights (TPR) appeals in January 2002. The state decided to focus on termination of parental rights appeals when writing new legislation, which can be expanded to include other classes of dependency appeals. In 2003 Iowa

www.ncsconline.org 0 17 began including children in need of assistance (CINA) appeals in the new expedited process. TPR and CINA appeals are transferred directly to the Iowa Court of Appeals. These cases are given the highest priority at all stages of the appellate process. There are expedited docketing and briefing schedules, and the parties are usually not given extensions of time.

Judge Gayle Nelson Vogel assembled the Iowa Court Improvement Project’s Termination of Parental Rights Expedited Appeals Task Force, which represented all disciplines: appellate judges, juvenile judges, attorneys representing parents, attorneys representing children, assistant attorneys general, and county attorneys. The task force met once a month for nine months for six to eight hours at a time to develop a proposal to expedite dependency appeals. The task force had about 90 percent attendance at every meeting. An agenda was prepared for each meeting, and each member was given a task to complete before the next meeting. The key to the success of the task force was the enthusiasm engen- dered by the possibility of revamping the appellate procedure to reduce the time families must wait for an appeal.

The proposal took nine months to draft and was sent to an oversight committee of the Court Improvement Project, who studied the proposal for approximately two months. The proposal was next sent to the Iowa Supreme Court, who reviewed it for approximately six months, while sending some revisions back and forth to the task force. The legislature approved and implemented the new procedures from the task force’s proposal in January 2002.

Iowa recently implemented a computerized court management system, which handles dockets. The new process uses an expedited docket that is incorporated into the computer system. The clerk of the supreme court monitors the cases through the software.

In the past, the attorney general’s office handled most appeals for the state, and the appellate defender’s office handled all indigent appeals. Using the new procedure, the trial counsel will handlc the appeals to save time, but the procedure will allow the trial counsel to withdraw from the case under extraordinary circumstances. Juvenile court judges are taught to grant withdrawals very sparingly, and the appointment of alternate counsel will not extend the time limitations on the appellate procedures.

Court reporters are well trained, and the clerk of court does not allow delays in transcript production. It usually takes less than thirty days to complete a transcript. Court Rule 17 requires that court reporters give priority to dependency cases over other civil transcripts.

The former expedited appellate schedule, which halved the regular briefing schedule for custody, adoption, TPR, juvenile proceedings affecting child placement, and lawyer disciplinary matters, allowed thirty days to file the notice of appeal and twenty days to docket the appeal; the appellant’s brief was submitted in twenty-five days, the appellee’s brief in fifteen, and the reply brief in seven. The total timc from notice of appeal to the appeal being fully briefed averaged five months. The new procedure totals forty-five days. After the entry of the TPR or CINA order, the notice of appeal must be filed within fifteen days, the petition filed within fifteen days, and the response submitted within fifteen days.

Fifteen days after the termination of parental rights order, the appellant and appellant’s counsel must sign the notice of appeal and order the transcript. The certificate for ordering the transcript is included in the notice of appeal.

Fifteen days from the filing of the notice of appeal, the appellant files a petition, rather than a brief. Attorneys file a fill-in-the-blanks form and required attachments with the clerk of the supreme court 18 Expediting Dependency Appeals and an information copy with the clerk of the district court. The form is prepared by the trial counsel and must not exceed fifteen pages (the old rule allowed fifty pages). The form includes the following information:

0 The nature of the case and relief sought 0 The date of the TPR order 0 A concise statement of material facts 0 Legal issues presented and how they were preserved for appeal 0 Supporting legal authority, not a written argument 0 Attachments: petition for termination and ruling(s) on petition

The appellee has fifteen days after the filing of the petition to file an optional response. The response is filed with the clerk of the supreme court and is also limited to fifteen pages. The response form is completed and submitted to correct factual assertions in the petition. (See Appendix E for copies of the petition and response.)

Within thirty days of the filing of the notice of appeal, the case is docketed with the supreme court. The record transmission, which is certified by the trial court clerk, must be complete at this time and includes the TPR or CINA court file and exhibits; the child in need of assistance court file and exhibits if they were received in the TPR or CINA proceeding; and the transcript of the TPR or CINA hearing.

The appellate court judges will affirm, reverse, remand, or set the appeal for full briefing. Further review by the supreme court is available, but not based on a refusal to grant full briefing. Currently, the Iowa Supreme Court only grants further review in about 5 percent of all cases and takes approximately seventy-five days to make this determination.

Massachusetts

Created in 1972, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals is a court of general appellate jurisdiction. Most appeals come from the departments of the trial court, and some are transferred to the supreme judicial court. Twenty-five justices serve on the appeals court and, like most intermediate appellate courts, usually sit in panels of three. Every justice sits with every other justice during the court year.

During recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in appeals involving the care and protection of children, termination of parental rights, and related cases. During fiscal year 2000, ninety-six such appeals were filed, a sharp increase over 1999’s sixty-eight cases, and more than triple the number filed in 1998. The Department of Social Services (DSS) files virtually all of these appeals.

For twenty years, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals has given dependency cases (adoption, termination of parental rights, custody, abuse and neglect, and removal) priority once briefs are submitted. Now the court expedites DSS cases during all phases of the appellate process. During a court meeting in 1997, the justices shared their concern that too many extensions were being granted in dependency cases and decided to select one justice to rule on all of the motions in juvenile appeals. Justice Charlotte Anne Perretta volunteered to lead the process for expediting dependency appeals. Clerks were told that all dependency cases were to be assigned to Justice Perretta, and two justices are now assisting her with this process.

www.ncsconline.org 6 19 Upon the completion of briefing, the justice promptly screens a DSS case’s briefs and record to determine whether it is suitable for summary disposition by a three-justice panel. A case is marked either “A” or “B” at screening. “A” appeals raise legal issues and require a published opinion and oral argu-

Expediting Appeals for Child Welfare Cases

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals initiated a process to expedite the appeals of cases involving children. Justice Charlotte Perretta developed the process and screens these cases. The process involves the following steps:

1. Parents must sign a notice of appeal. Attorneys were filing appeals automatically, and requiring the parental signature reduced the number of appeals. 2. The clerk of court orders the trial court transcript, not waiting until the parties request the transcript. Transcripts are paid for by the state. 3. The court meets with the DSS house counsel. The court also meets with the Comniittee for Public Counsel Services, which appoints counsel for the indigent. 4. One justice promptly screens all cases to determine whether they are suitable for summary disposition. This “one-judge” procedure helps to ensure predictability and consistency in case identification. To avoid possible conflicts of interest, the screening justice does not sit on the decision panel. 5. The screening justice writes a screening memo. 6. The court sets briefing deadlines, which are not reduced for dependency appeals, and motions for time extensions are rarely granted. The appellate clerk keeps a running list of outstanding briefs. If a particular attorney is chronically late in filing briefs, Justice Perretta will ask Child Protective Services to remove the attorney from the active list. This has improved the timeliness of briefs. 7. Child welfare cases are civil cases falling under court rule 128. This rule allows nonpub- lished opinions if no new law is created and the decision is based on the facts of the case. No oral argument is required. 8. All cases go through an editing process. One staff attorney edits all the child welfare cases, expediting the process and improving consistency. 9. Cases receive pseudonyms, so cases do not read “In re Minor Child” or ‘‘In Adoption of Jane Doe.” Unique names reduce research time because individual cases are more easily identified and found in automated or manual searches. 10. The court encourages attorneys to request transcripts when they know they will appeal and encourages them to monitor the production process. 1 1. The clerk of the appeals court runs continuous checks on the cases as a back-up system.

The justice rarely grants continuances. A small bar practices in the area of children’s cases, and Justice Perretta knows all the attorneys. The court offers a certified day of training for the bar and educates trial judges on how to make findings and decisions more affirmable. The court of last resort has a standing committee on causes of delay that meets every three months and proposes solutions. The two levels of appellate courts work together to expedite child welfare cases.

20 + Expediting Dependency Appeals ment. Cases that warrant full argument are routinely scheduled on the next available calendar. “B” appeals do not require oral argument. They go to a staff attorney, who reviews and, if necessary, requests more information, prepares a staff memo and order, and sends the case to a three-judge panel. If any one of the three justices disagrees with the decision, the case is moved to the “A’’ list. If all three justices agree with the order, the case is then sent to an in-house editor, who is an attorney, to edit the order. The time to rescript (when the appellate court’s written decision, usually unsigned, is sent down to the trial court) for type “B” cases is twenty-eight days after the justices have reviewed the order. Massachusetts has a 130-day guideline fr9m oral argument to release for all appeals, but expedited dependency appeals usually take no more than forty-five to fifty days.

Analysis of Data for Timelines

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals was selected for an intense site visit to discover how the court expedites dependency appeals. Staff compared the time for appeals in 1996-the last year before the expedition process began-with 1999, which is the latest year for data (see Chart F).

Time from date of entry to date of rescript has decreased by an average of 2. I months between 1996 and 1999 since the implementation of the judicial screening procedure (see Table 1).

The time from notice of appeal (NOA) to a case being ready for hearing was reduced 4.6 months after the implementation of the screening justice The time from ready-to-disposition and disposition-to- rescript increased in 1999. This increase may be caused by the justices spending Chart F more time on the more difficult cases Time from Date of Entry to Date of Rescript flagged for expedition by the screening for Child Dependency Cases in Massachusetts justice. Thus, the more complex appeals receive more time, but the overall time 0 spent on dependency appeals is reduced. While cases are taking longer from the 100 time they are ready for decision to rescript, the overall appeal-handling time 200 0 Mean has decreased by 2.1 months. Median 300 Obstacles to Expedition 400 More appellate-level certified child wel- 1996-41 cases 1999-59 cases fare counsel are needed, and the court has both increased the number of attorneys available to handle these cases and placed limits on the number of appeals an attor- Table 1 ney can handle simultaneously, thus Comparison of Events in the Appellate Process reducing the requests for extensions. A 1996 1999 Difference subcommittee issued a report with pro- NOA - Ready 7.8 months 3.2 months -4.6 months posed amendments to the Massachusetts Ready - Disposition 4.1 months 5.1 months t1 month Rules of Appellate Procedure and the Interim Supplemental Rules of Appellate Disposition - Rescript 1.3 months 1.7 months t0.4 months Procedure in Care and Protection cases. (10.7 days) The subcommittee’s goals included: Total 1.1 years 10 months -2.1 months

www.ncsconline.org 4 21 0 Providing a uniform appeal period for child welfare cases 0 Establishing a procedure for.filing a notice of appeal, which would aid in dealing with the problenis posed by missing clients 0 Establishing a procedure for the appointment of appellate counsel, which makes it clear that trial counsel continues to be responsible for further trial court proceedings 0 Expediting the assembly of the record 0 Providing notice to the trial court when appeals are entered in the appellate courts

Like many states, assembling the record and preparing transcripts are the primary delay problems. The appellate court has no control over dependency case transcripts, which currently are not given priority by the trial court.

Minnesota

The initial recommendation to expedite child protection appeals in Minnesota came from the Supreme Court Foster Care and Adoption Task Force of the state’s Court Improvement Committee. The actual proposed court rule was drafted by the Supreme Court Juvenile Protection Rules Committee, which was responsible for redrafting the entire set of Juvenile Protection Rules to comply with the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act. This twenty-two-person, multidisciplinary committee comprised trial court judges, appellate court judges, guardians ad litem, parent and child attorneys, court attorneys, child protection social workers, and private attorneys from across the state. The committee met at least monthly from September 1997 through February 1999 with the goal of bringing the rules into compliance with the federal and state statutory revisions that have been enacted since 1982. Six sub- committees prepared preliminary drafts of rules regarding the following issues: time lines for decision making, discovery, termination of parental rights, alternative dispute resolution, runaway and habitual truant matters, and application of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Throughout its deliberations, the Supreme Court Juvenile Protection Rules Committee kept in niind the following key values and considerations:

0 The purposes of child protection matters, including, in particular, the need to establish safc and permanent homes for children in a timely manner 0 The rights of parties 0 The need to comply with federally mandated expedited timelines for making decisions regarding permanency 0 The desire to reflect best practices as expressed in the Resource Guidelines,foi*lnijmving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases published by the National Counsil of Juvenile and Family Court Judges 0 The desire to recommend fiscally neutral amendments

More than 800 stakeholders reviewed several drafts of the proposed rules, and recommendations were incorporated into the proposal, which was submitted to the Minnesota Supreme Court in November 1999. In December 1999 the supreme court issued an order promulgating the Rules of Juvenile Protection Procedure, which went into effect on March 1, 2001.

Minnesota’s approach to expediting dependency appeals covers adoption, termination of parental rights, custody, children in need of assistance, and abuse and neglect cases. This state’s court rule

22 + Expediting Dependency Appeals requires the appellate court to issue a decision within sixty days of the date the case is deemed submitted under the Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure. Minnesota’s Juvenile Protection Rule 82 expressly provides for an expedited appeal process by 1) requiring all appeals to be filed within thirty days from the filing of the order (rather than from the date of service of the order upon an adverse party), and 2) mandating that the appellate decision be issued within sixty days of receipt (rather than the normal ninety days for other types of cases). Because court rule 82.05 requires cases to be filed within thirty days, transcripts are generally received within the thirty-day limit. The briefing schedule allows each party thirty days to file a brief and ten days to file a reply brief for a total of seventy days after the delivery of the transcript. This is the same schedule used for all civil cases. In dependency cases, oral argument is waived only 20 percent of the time. Rule 82.06 provides that opinions in child protection cases must be issued within sixty days of the date the case is deemed submitted, and the opinions must be circulated to all court of appeals judges during a ten-day review period. The maximum length of time between notice of appeal and the case being fully briefed is one hundred days. The maximum length of time between the case being fully briefed and a decision is ninety days.

New York

In New York, where a stay is granted pursuant to the Family Court Act $9 1 1 12,1114, an appeal is expedited as an emergency matter by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, and Court of Appeals. Transcripts are completed on an overnight or rush basis, briefing schedules are shortened, and arguments and decisions are expedited. Appeals that do not involve emergency stays may also be expedited. For example, in the appellate division, third department, appeals are scheduled for argument within ninety days of perfection, with a shorter schedule applied to dependency and other child- related cases. In the fourth department, perfected appeals may be argued within two months. Dependency abuse and neglect appeals in all divisions are automatically given preference and are closely monitored. All family court appeals, regardless of category, have the benefit of a simplified process. Printed cases and briefs are not req~ired.~

The legal issues subcommittee and the appellate division, fourth department, have conducted a joint project enforcing appellate scheduling preferences for expediting appeals. The project increased the dismissal rates for abandoned appeals and increased court communication regarding case status. As a result, time for appeal has been reduced by more than one year.

The subcommittee, led by Supervising Judge Sharon Townsend, included clerks in the appellate division, fourth department, and the Erie County Family Court; attorneys from legal services; and experi- enced appellate attorneys. The subcommittee identified specific areas of the appellate process that cause delay for children in foster care and implemented new procedures to expedite the appeals.

Causes of delay include a lack of communication between thc courts and parties about the existence and status of appeals and an inconsistent method for referencing appeals: “For example, the Family Court has been listing appeals based upon the information derived from the captions on the Notice of Appeal; the Appellate Division, Fourth Department redacts the surnames to an initial letter for confidentiality reasons; and litigant agencies have their own systems.”6 Strategies to improve communication include:

0 The Erie County Family Court [Records Managcr] will uniformly record filed appeals in the style of the caption of the order appealed from.

www.ncsconline.org 23 0 The Manager will create a master list of pending appeals, which will be e-mailed monthly to the Appellate Division, Fourth Department Clerk, and agency attorneys. 0 The master list will include a column reflecting the disposition of the appeal and will be updated monthly.’

The backlog caused by unperfected appeals that were not disposed of by an appellate order was another cause of delay in New York. Strategies to decrease the backlog include eliminating appeals that have been administratively dismissed after nine months, but which remain within the one-year vacatur period, by bringing motions to dismiss such appeals in the appellate division on notice to the appellant. Another solution is to allow the family court to make a case-by-case determination upon review of prospective adoptions. If the family court determines that an impediment to the child’s adoption exists, a request will be made to the appellate division to clarify the child’s status.

Ohio

After reviewing statutes and court rules from other states and from Ohio appellate districts, Justice Stratton of the Ohio Supreme Court drafted a court rule for the Ohio Rules of Appellate Procedure and an amendment to the Rules of Practice for the Supreme Court of Ohio.8 These two rules expedited cases involving termination of parental rights or adoption of a minor child. The project was fund- ed through a grant by the Dave Thomas Adoption Foundation to the Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law at Capital University Law Sch~ol.~

The rules were informally circulated to the Ohio Association of Probate Court Judges; the Ohio Association of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; the Columbus Bar Association Family Law and Juvenile Law committees; the Ohio State Bar Association Family Law Committee; the Public Children Services Association of Ohio; the Expedited Adoption Advisory Committee of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; adoption groups; and other stakeholders affected by the rule for comment and discussion. Once the comnients were returned and the rules edited, they were sent to the Rules Committee of the Ohio Supreme Court. The rules were placed on the docket, voted on, and published sixty days later. The supreme court adopted the rules two months later. The Ohio state legislature adopted the appellate court rule, as well. The entire implementation process took eighteen months.

Both the appellate rule and the amended supreme court rules expressly shorten the time allowed to complete the stages of the appeals process (see Appendix D). For example, in expedited appeals, the court reporter must “give priority” to preparing the record, and the briefing schedules are reduced. “The briefing schedule for adoption and parental rights cases follows the twenty/twenty/ten schedule set for regular appeals; [alppellant serves and files [a] brief twenty days after the clerk mails the noticc of appeal to appellee, who serves and files twenty days later, and appellant serves and files the optional reply brief ten days after that.”l0 The appellate court rule restricts the granting of extensions and requires prompt oral arguments.” Oral arguments must be heard within thirty days after the briefs are submitted.’* The appellate court rules reduce the time for filing judgment entry to thirty days from a guideline of sixty days for non-expedited appeals, and the supreme court rule reduced the time for an appellant to file the notice of appeal and accompanying memorandum in support ofjuris- diction from forty-five days for a non-expedited appeal to twenty days.

Ohio’s appellate districts must expedite termination of parental rights and adoption appeals, but the state has recognized that there is an inconsistency in how the courts implement, interpret, and respond

24 + Expediting Dependency Appeals to the rules.I3 However, the state is evaluating data regarding termination of parental rights and adoption appeals from the twelve appellate districts and the supreme court to address this concern.

Vermont

The Supreme Court of Vermont received a federal grant to assess its child abuse and neglect proceedings in December 1995. The Vermont Supreme Court formed an advisory committee, which asked the National Center for State Courts to conduct an assessment of the proceedings. The National Center’s report, completed in February 1997, found that the Vermont Supreme Court took ten to thirty months to resolve appeals involving children in need of assistance (CHINS) and termination of parental rights (TPR), with an average of fourteen months. The advisory committee’s final report recommended that the supreme court set a goal of resolving 95 percent of CHINS/TPR appeals within four months of the filing of the notice of appeal.

The staff attorney team of the Vermont Supreme Court delivered a memorandum to the supreme court which detailed problems that cause delay in each aspect of the appeals process and made specific recommendations for addressing those problems. After obtaining feedback from various court personnel, including judges, the staff attorney team refined the recommendations for expediting CHINS/TPR appeals. The staff attorney team consulted with those persons who would be directly affected by the changes in appellate procedures: trial court clerks, reporters and transcribers, attorneys working for the defender general, assigned conflict counsel, the attorney general, and the state’s attorneys. Changes in the internal operating procedures of the court commenced in the spring of 1998.

The internal operating procedures are regularly refined based on comments from attorneys, clerks, reporters, and transcribers. Proposed rules are sent to the Civil Rules Committee for review and comment. Vermont identified potential problems and used them to structure an outline of solutions, which is an effective strategy that other courts could use to identify and solve sources of delay in their appellate processes.

Problem 1:

Transcripts not being ordered within ten days of the filing of the notice of appeal, as required by rule, because of delays in appellants seeking and obtaining assigned appellate counsel and because of delays in the trial court clerks forwarding information that would allow the supreme court to begin processing the appeals.

Solution:

Amend statute so that appellants in CHINS/TPR cases who had been assigned trial counsel need not seek court approval for assigned appellate counsel.

Amend rule so that transcript order in CHIIWTPR cases must be filed along with notice of appeal. Require trial court clerks to send the Supreme Court a copy of the notice of appeal and docket sheet within one day of filing the notice of appeal in CHINS/TPR cases.

www.ncsconline.org + 25 Problem 2:

Delays in production of transcripts by reporters and transcribers.

Solution:

Establish firm one-month deadline for completing CHINS/TPR transcripts, which take highest priority. Reporters may not take notes in CHIIWTPR hearings unless they can guarantee that they will be able to complete transcripts of those hearings within one month of transcript order. If transcripts arc not done within thirty days of order, they are pulled out of court until transcripts are done.

Require trial court clerks to send tapes to transcribers within one day of receiving copy of transcript orders.

Problem 3:

Additional transcripts ordered by appellate counsel weeks after trial counsel has niade original transcript order.

Solution:

Ask the defender general to institute a new policy requiring that transcripts of all CHINS/TPR hearings be ordered at the outset by trial counsel, unless they are sure that certain transcripts will not be necessary for an appeal.

Problem 4 Delays in briefing caused by numerous stipulations and motions for extensions of time.

Solution:

Amend rules so that parties in CHINS/TPR appeals may not stipulate to extensions of timc, which will be granted only upon a showing of extraordinary circumstances.

Problem 5:

Delays in screening cases and setting them in order for argument and decision.

Solution:

Immediately upon completion of briefing, CHINS/TPR cases are designated as three-justice or fivc- justice cases and placed on the calendar for the next upcoming term.

Problem 6:

Delays in deciding cases

26 Expediting Dependency Appeals Solution:

CHINYTPR cases are given highest priority. Three-justice cases are drafted before argument and issued within one day of argument. Five-justice cases are drafted immediately following argument and take highest priority regarding circulation and issuance.

Problem 7:

Cases falling through the cracks or getting stalled for some period of time before delays are noticed.

Solu tion:

Designate rotating staff attorney as responsible for tracking CHINYTPR cases on a weekly basis.

A Summary of Specific Procedures for Expediting CHlNSlTPR Cases in Vermont

Initial Communications

Transcribers and reporters were informed orally and in writing that they must prioritize CHINS/TPR transcripts and of the consequences of not doing so. The staff attorney team met with representatives from the offices of defender general, assigned conflict counsel, attorney general, and state’s attorneys regarding the proposed rule changes, the new agenda for expediting CHINYTPR cases, and the consequences of not abiding by the new procedures. The court administrator’s office assured the advisory committee that family court clerks and managers were made aware of new procedures for expediting CHlNS/TPR cases and that they will 1) not allow reporters to take notes at CHINS/TPR proceedings unless the reporters can guarantee production of the transcripts within thirty days; 2) remove reporters from court if CHlNS/TPR transcripts are not done within thirty days of the filing of the notice of appeal; 3) check that the transcript order is filed along with each notice of appeal in CHINS/TPR cases; 4) send tapes to transcribers the same day the transcript is ordered; 5) send the supreme court a copy of the notice of appeal and docket sheet within one day of the filing of the notice of appeal; and 6) send the supreme court the complete file as soon as possible.

Changes in Internal Operating Procedures (IOPs)

A staff attorney on a three-month rotation schedule tracks CHINYTPR cases weekly. The staff attorney “micromanages” the appeal by drafting progress orders; calling trial court clerks, reporters, transcribers, and attorneys when necessary to ensure that transcripts are ordered and completed, and that briefs are submitted, in a timely manner; ensuring that cases are promptly designated as three-justice or five-justice appeals and then set for argument or conference; and seeing that decisions are drafted, circulated, and issued.

The docket clerk provides the staff attorney with a copy of every CHINWTPR notice of appeal that is filed. The staff attorney tracks each appeal weekly through every stage of the appellate process, not- ing progress on individual sheets for each case, which are kept in a three-ring binder. The staff attorney handles all motions filed in pending CHINS/TPR appeals.

Upon the completion of briefing, the staff attorney circulates a short memorandum on the appeal among the justices for the designation of a three- or five-justice appeal. The appeal is set for the next

www.ncsconline.org + 27 term, even if it has to be added on to a calendar of cases that is already scheduled. For five-justice cases and add-on three-justice cases, justices are assigned by rotation.

CHNYTPR cases are given the highest priority for drafting, circulating, resolving, and issuing a decision.

Rule Amendments

1. Rule amended to require appellants in CHINYTPR cases to indicate on the notice of appeal that the appeal is from a CHINS/TPR order.

2. Rule amended to require appellants in CHINYTPR cases to file the transcript order at the same time the notice of appeal is filed.

3. Rule amended to prohibit parties from stipulating to an extension of time for briefing CHINS/TPR appeals.

4. Rule amended to require a showing of extraordinary circumstances before allowing an extension of time for briefing in CHINS/TPR cases.

5. Statute amended so that appellants in CHINYTPR cases need not seek assigned appellate counsel.

Virginia

In 1986 Virginia adopted a statute requiring circuit courts to try termination of parental rights cases within ninety days of filing. “While the Virginia statute requires that a de novo appeal to the circuit court be tried within 90 days of perfecting the appeal, attorneys for the agency reported in site visits that an appeal can take up to six months, with an appeal from the circuit court to the court of appeal taking up to another year.”I4 The state has trained its circuit judges who hear de novo appeals to assist them in understanding the need and purpose of expedited appeals in these cases.

A statute went into effect July 1, 1998, stating that termination of parental rights appeals should take precedence on the court of appeals docket. Lelia Hopper, the court improvement project director, prc- sented a proposal to the Virginia legislature that was approved by the Judicial Council of Virginia, led by Chief Judge Fitzpatrick of the court of appeals. Judge Fitzpatrick said that termination of parental rights cases should be expedited just as workmen’s compensation cases are currently. The bill passed through the Judicial Council of Virginia, was signed by the governor, and approved July 1, 1998. ‘The entire process took five to six months. Code $16.1-283(d) provides: “When an appeal is taken in a case involving termination of parental rights brought under 4 16.1-283, the circuit court shall hold a hearing on the merits of the case within 90 days of the perfecting of the appeal. An appeal of the case to the Court of Appeals shall take precedence on the docket of the court.”

The 1998 statute was the focus of a court improvement project study, which looked at approximately 100 cases over the past five years. The Virginia court system includes juvenile and domestic relations courts, which are not courts of record. Parties have a de novo appeal of right to the circuit court, which tries the case as if it were never heard before. Parties then have an appeal of right to the court

28 + Expediting Dependency Appeals of appeals. Finally, the Virginia Supreme Court may hear a case if it is granted certiorari-a rarity. Appeals at the court of appeals level were the focus of the court improvement project study.

In Virginia, attorneys have to provide reporters, and attorneys are permitted sixty to ninety days to complete the record. After the record is received (sixty to ninety days after the notice of appeal), the appellant has forty days to file a brief, the appellee has twenty-five days to file a response brief, and the appellant has fourteen days for a reply brief. The briefing schedule is not shortened for termination of parental rights cases, but the court of appeals avoids approving extensions with regularity. In 100 cases, six were granted an extension for an opening brief. Cases are reviewed in the court of appeals to determine if the case can be summarily affirmed without oral argument or affirmed with oral argument by the chief staff attorney’s office. There are no formal time limits for written decisions. By rule, parties take 169 days from the filing of the notice of appeal and the case being fully briefed. The court improvement project study found that a dismissed case may take 100 days to complete after the records are received. If a case is summarily affirmed, it takes less time. Affirmed cases take the most time.

The court improvement project’s staff in the Office of the Executive Secretary conducted a study on expedited appeals and issued several recommendation^.'^

1) Courts should differentiate termination of parental rights cases from other case types to enhance prioritization.

2) Courts should implement routine, preferential case-handling procedures.

3) Courts should consider ongoing refinements to procedures that affect termination of parental rights and other dependency case appeals.

www.ncsconline.org 29 Information for this section was obtained from the following sources: Georgia: Written correspondence with James F. Morris, presiding judge, Juvenile Court of Cobb County, Marietta, Georgia, and William L. Martin 111, administratorklerk, Court of Appeals of Georgia. Iowa: Judge Gayle Nelson Vogel, Iowa Court of Appeals, state contact. Massachusetts: Based on a site visit to the Appeals Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and discussions with Justice Charlotte Ann Perretta and Alexander McNeil, court administrator (April 2001). Minnesota: Telephone interview with Rick Slowes, commissioner, Minnesota Supreme Court (March 29, 2001). New York: Janet R. Fink, deputy counsel, State of New York, state contact, and Supervising Judge Sharon Townsend, Erie County Family Court. Ohio: Justice Evelyn Lundberg Statton, Supreme Court of Ohio. Vermont: Ed McSweeney, chief staff attorney, Vermont Supreme Court, Permanency Partnership Forum VI, March 11-15, 2002, Washington, D.C. Virginia: Telephone interview with Lelia Hopper, court improvement project director, and Ginny Powell, research analyst, Court Improvement Program-Foster Care and Adoption Office of the Executive Secretary, Supreme Court of Virginia (March 12, 2001). * The appellate courts in Georgia have three terms a year. OCGA §9-10-1. Internal Operations Manual, section 15 (P), p. 41. Family Court Act 91 116. "Appeals Project Report," Erie County Family Court Improvement Project Legal Issues Subcommittee. Although names have been removed from the text of the strategies in this document, Erie County writes-in specific names of those who are responsible for each step of the process, which is an effective way of personalizing internal Operat- ing procedures. Three appellate judicial districts have local rules that provide an expedited review and determination of matters involving children. The Second (Second Dist.. Ohio, App. J. R. 2.8), Fourth (Fourth Dist.. Ohio, app. J. R. 13), and Fifth (Fifth Dist., Ohio, App. J. R. 7) Appellate Districts give priority to appeals involving custody and parental rights. See Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Supreme Court of Ohio, "Expediting the Adoption Process at the Appellate Level," Capital University Law Review 28 (1999): 121.

loSusan C. Wawrose, "'Can We Go Home Now?': Expediting Adoption and Termination of Parental Rights Appeals in Ohio State Courts," Journal of Applied Practice and Procedure 4 (2002); Ohio R. App. P. 18(A).

l1 Ohio App. R. 11.2 (c)(3), (4).

l2 Ohio App. R. 11.2 (c)

l3 See Wawrose. "Can We Go Home?," and "Survey Regarding Implementation of Ohio Appellate Rule 11.2," unpublished results of survey conducted by Connie R. Crim, law clerk to Justice Stratton, March 2001 (copy on file with authors). l4 Robert Lancour, Diane Boyd Rauber, and Mark Hardin, State Court Assessments 7995-7998: Dependency Proceedings, vol. 4, Timely Judicial Decisionmaking (Washington, DC : American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, 1999), p. 81.

l5 Court Improvement Program-Foster Care and Adoption Office of the Executive Secretary, Supreme Court of Virginia, "Final Report: Expediting Appeals in the Court of Appeals of Virginia: An Analysis of Time Frames in Termination of Parental Rights Cases" (December 2001).

30 + Expediting Dependency Appeals Appendices

Alabama Arkansas Hon. George Brown Connie Tanner Judge, Juvenile Court Director of Court Improvement Project 23 15 Costarides St. 625 Marshall Mobile, AL 366 17 Justice Building, Suite 1 100 Little Rock, AR 72201 Hon. John Wilkerson Clerk of Court California Alabama Court of Civil Appeals Hon. Leonard Edwards 300 Dexter Avenue Judge, Santa Clara Superior Court Montgomery, AL 36 104 191 N. First San Jose, CA 951 13 Alaska Justice Robert Eastaugh Hon. Richard D. Huffman Alaska Supreme Court Associate Justice 303 K Street Fourth Appellate District Anchorage, AK 99501 Division One, #750 “B” Street Suite 300 Marilyn May San Diego, CA 92 10 1 Clerk of Court Alaska Supreme Court Diane Nunn 303 K Street Director, Judicial Council Center for Families, Anchorage, AK 99501 Children and the Courts 450 Golden Gate Avenue Arizona San Francisco, CA 94102 Phil G. Urry Staff Attorney Colorado Division One, Justice Alcx J. Martinez Arizona Court of Appeals 2 E. 14th Avenue 1501 W, Washington, # 302 Colorado State Judicial Building Phoenix, AZ 85007 Denver, CO 80203

www.ncsconline.org + 31 Connecticut Hon. Corinne K. A. Watanabe Hon. Francis X. Hennessy Associate Judge Judge, Appellate Court Intermediate Court of Appeals 95 Washington Street 426 Queen Street, Room 201 Hartford, CT 06 106 Honolulu, HI 968 13

Ginger Flynn Idaho Paralegal Case Flow Specialist Cathy Derden Appellate Court Staff Attorney 95 Washington Street P.O. Box 83720 Hartford, CT 06 106 Boise, ID 83720-0 10 1

Delaware Illinois Gayle Lafferty Hon. Patricia Martin Bishop Chief Staff Attorney Presiding Judge 820 N. French Street Circuit Court PO. Box 1997 1100 S. Hamilton Avenue Wilmington, DE 19899-1997 Chicago, IL 606 12

District of Columbia Indiana Garland Pinkston, Jr. Hon. James Kirsch Clerk of the Court of Appeals Judge, Indiana Court of Appeals D.C. Court of Appeals 200 W. Washington Street 500 Indiana Avenue, N W Room 4 15 Washington, DC 2000 1 Indianapolis, IN 46204

Florida James W. Payne Justice Barbara Pariente Judge, Juvenile Court Florida Supreme Court 245 1 N. Keystone Avenue 500 South Duval Street Indianapolis, IN 4621 8 Tallahassee, FL 32399-1 925 Iowa Georgia Hon. Constance Cohen Justice James E Morris Associate Juvenile Court Judge Juvenile Court of Cobb County Iowa District Court, 5th Judicial District 1738 County Services Parkway Polk County Courthouse Marietta, GA 30008 500 Mulberry Street, Room 209B Des Moines, 1A 50309 Hawaii William A. Santos David Ewert Deputy Chief Court Administrator Director of Screening First Judicial Circuit Iowa Court of Appeals P.O. Box 3498 P.O. Box 350 Honolulu, HI 968 1 1-3498 Knoxville, IA 50138

Hon. Gayle Nelson Vogel Judge, Iowa Court of Appeals PO. Box 350 Knoxville, IA 50138 32 + Expediting Dependency Appeals Kansas Massachusetts Justice Edward Larson Hon. Charlotte Perretta Supreme Court Associate Justice 301 West 10th Massachusetts Appeals Court Topeka, KS 666 12- 1 507 1500 New Courthouse Boston, MA 02108 Kentucky Hon. Patricia Walker Fitzgerald Michigan Judge, Jefferson Family Court, Third Division Sandra Mengel 700 West Jefferson Street Chief Deputy Clerk Louisville, KY 40202 Michigan Court of Appeals 1001 Woodward Avenue, Suite 900 Justice Janet L. Stumbo Detroit, MI 48226 Supreme Court 3 1 I N. Arnold Avenue, Suite 502 Minnesota Prestonburg, KY 4 1653 Hon. Russell Anderson Associate Justice Louisiana Supreme Court Karen Hallstrom 25 Constitution Avenue Deputy Judicial Administrator St. Paul, MN 55 155 Judicial Administrator’s Office 15555 Poydras Street, Suite 1540 Mississippi New Orleans, LA 701 12 Kevin Lackey Deputy Court Administrator Robin Lawrence Saizan Supreme Court Clerk of Court P.O. Box 117 Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Jackson, MS 39205 42 1 Loyola Avenue New Orleans, LA 70 1 12 Missouri Hon. Ray Price Maine Judge, Supreme Court Hon. Leigh 1. Saufley PO. Box 150 Associate Justice Jefferson City, MO 65 102 Maine Supreme Judicial Court Cumberland County Courthouse Montana PO. Box 368 Justice James C. Nelson Portland, ME 04 1 12 Supreme Court Room 323, Justice Building Maryland P.O. Box 203003 Althea R. Stewart Jones Helena, MT 59620-3003 Executive Director, Foster Care Court Improvement Project Nebraska Administrative Office of the Courts M. J. Walsh Maryland Judicial Center Staff Attorney 580 Taylor Avenue Nebraska Court of Appeals Annapolis, MD 2 140 1 State Capital, 9th Floor Lincoln, NE 68509-8910

www.ncsconline.org + 33 Nevada North Dakota Justice Miriam Shearing Hon. Lee A. Christofferson Nevada Supreme Court District Court Judge 201 South Carson Street Ramsey County Courthouse Carson City, NV 8970 1-4702 524 4th Avenue, P.O. Box 70 Devils Lake, ND 58301-0070 New Hampshire Kristin Lamont Penny Miller Attorney-Permanency Planning Coordinator Clerk of the Supreme Court Concord District Court State Capitol PO. Box 389 600 E. Boulevard Avenue, Dept. 180 Concord, NH 03302-0389 Bismarck, ND 58505-0530

Howard Zibel Ohio Clerk of the Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton Supreme Court of New Hampshire Supreme Court of Ohio One Nobel Drive 30 East Broad Street Concord, NH 03301 Columbus, OH 432 1 5-343 1

New Jersey Oklahoma Hon. Robert Fall Chief Justice Hardy Summers Judge, Appellate Division Oklahoma Supreme Court 202 Superior Court State Capitol 100 E. Water Street Oklahoma City, OK 73 105 PO. Box 461 7 Toms River, NJ 08754-46 17 Oregon Keith Garza New Mexico Sr. Appellate Staff Attorney Gina Maestas Oregon Supreme Court Director, Prehearing Division 1163 State Street Court of Appeals Salem, OR 973 10 237 Gaspar PO. Box 2008 Pennsylvania Santa Fe, NM 87504 Cynthia Keller Deputy City Solicitor New York City of Philadelphia Law Dept. Janet Fink One Parkway Building Clerk 15 15 Arch Street, 15th Floor Office of Court Administration Philadelphia, PA 19 102 25 Beaver Street, 1 1 th Floor New York, NY 10004 Rhode Island Hon. Jeremiah S. Jeremiah, Jr. North Carolina Chief Justice of Family Court John Connell J. Joseph Garrahy Judicial Complex Clerk, Supreme Court Providence, Rl 02903 PO. Box 2779 Raleigh, NC 27602

34 Expediting Dependency Appeals South Carolina Ginny Powell Hon. A. Gene Morehead I11 Research Analyst Family Court Judge Court Improvement Program 180 North Irby Street, # 401 Foster Care/Adoption Florence, SC 29501-3456 Office of Executive Director Supreme Court of Virginia Tennessee 100 N. Ninth Street, 3rd Floor Ms. Leslie Kinkead Richmond, VA 232 19 Coordinator, Court Improvement Program Administrative Office of the Courts Hon. Stephen W. Rideout 600 Nashville City Center Judge 51 1 Union Alexandria Juvenile and Domestic Relations Nashville, TN 372 19 District Court 520 King Street, 1st Floor Texas Alexandria, VA 22304 Justice Catherine Stone Fourth Court of Appeals Washington Bexar County Justice Center Justice Bobbe J. Bridge 300 Dolorosa, Suite 3200 Washington State Supreme Court San Antonio, TX 78205 Temple of Justice PO. Box 40929 Utah Olympia, WA 98504-0929 Hon. Pamela Greenwood Utah Court of Appeals West Virginia PO. Box 140230 Blake Westfall Salt Lake City, UT 84 1 14-02 10 Deputy Clerk West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Vermont 1900 Kanawha Edward McSweeney Building 1, Room E3 17 Staff Attorney Charleston, WV 25305 Vermont Supreme Court 109 State Street Wisconsin Montpelier, VT 05609-0801 Michelle Jensen Director, Children’s Court lmprovement Virginia Office of Court Operations Lelia Baum Hopper 110 E. Main Street Court Improvement Project Director Suite 4 IO Office of the Executive Director Madison, WI 53703 Supreme Court of Virginia 100 N. Ninth Street, 3rd Floor Wyoming Richmond, VA 232 19 Chief Justice Michael Golden Wyoming Supreme Court PO. Box 1737 Cheyenne, WY 82203

www.ncsconline.org + 35 I I

1 I

Name:

Date:

Interviewer:

Telephone Survey Protocol

Good morning/good afternoon, my name is . The National Center for State Courts is examining states that currently expedite appeals in dependency cases, look- ing for promising practices and ideas to share with those states that are in the preliminary stages of planning an expedited process. Dependency cases are known by different names in different states. For example, dependency cases may be labeled as child abuse or neglect cases, children in need of assistance, or termination of parental rights cases, and may include adoption. For our interview, we will use the generic term, dependency. Chief Justice of the [state] Supreme Court, gave us your name and number as a contact, as someone who is knowledgeable about the process your state uses to expedite appeals in dependency cases.

A. QUESTIONS ON SETTING UPTHE PROCESS

1. Your state supreme court indicated that you have expedited dependency case appeals. What is the scope of your expedited process?

Does it cover: u Adoption u Termination of parental rights 0 Custody u Children in need of assistance 0 Abuse or neglect 0 Other

36 0 Expediting Dependency Appeals 2. Does your court have automatic appeals for termination of parental rights cases?

3. When does the case usually go up to the appellate court?

Adjudication Disposition 0 Permanency plan TPR Adoption

4. Approximately, how many dependency appeals do you have a year?

5. What other types of cases are given priority by rule or statute for expedition of appeals?

6. What was the legal process for making the rule or legislation for dependency cases? 0 Court rule [7 Court rule approved by legislature ~ Statute 0 Internal operating procedures

7. Who initiated the rule or law change for expediting these cases? 0 Court improvement plan committee [7 Legislature

U Bar association Ajudge Other

8. Do you have separate internal operating procedures (IOPs) for dealing with dependency appeals?

Cases are tracked sooner [7 Cases are prioritized for oral argument or conference u Drafting and issuance of decision Other

9. Who wrote the rule, law, or internal operating procedure (IOP) for your court?

www.ncsconline.org + 37 10. Can you briefly describe the different steps your court went through to get the expedited process in place? Who were the key players or stakeholders involved in the process? (on back)

1 1. How long did it take to complete the adoption of the expedition process?

12. Does the expedited rule or law place stronger requirements on the trial court than applies to other types of cases?

B. PROCEDURAL QUESTIONS: APPELLATE CASEFLOW MANAGEMENT

13. Are the appellate court and supreme court processes different?; a. If so, how are they different? b. Is the docketing process different in the two types of courts? c. Are all appeals in the intermediate court of appeals granted autoniatically or is there a certiorari process? d. Does the supreme court hear many of these cases or are they usually dismissed and returned to the lower court?

Entry of Case into Docket System

14. What is your court’s mechanism for getting a dependency case on the docket? a. Who classifies a case as a dependency case? 0 The parties 0 Court staff when reviewing filings 0 Court lawyers Court clerks 0- u Other b. Does the court leave open spaces on the calendar for these cases? c. Does the court use an expedition docket sheet? (If yes, ask for sample.) d. Do you have a back-up system to ensure dependency cases are expedited? If yes, how does it work? e. In prioritizing a dependency case, how often is another case that has already been set: for oral argument or conferencing rescheduled for a later date? 0 Always 0 Often 0 Seldom 0 Never

Twelve states do not have an IAC: DC, DE, ME, MT, ND, NH, NV, RI, SD, VT, W, WY.

38 + Expediting Dependency Appeals 15. Does the trial attorney usually prepare the appeal, or is there a different attorncy at the appellate level? a. Does the process usually involve court-appointed attorneys?

Completion of the Record (Transcript)

16. How do you ensure that the production of the trial court transcripts is not delayed? a. Are transcripts done by reporters or transcribers (tapes)? b. What system is used? u Private reporter or transcriber company 0 Reporters and transcribers work directly for the trial court c] Other

c. Do trial courts give dependency case transcripts priority? If yes, is there a court rule giving dependency case transcripts priority above other transcripts? d. About how long does it take to complete transcripts? e. What are the principal causes for delays in completing transcripts?

Briefing

17. How long is your briefing schedule? a. Do you shorten the briefing schedule for dependency appeals? b. What system or standard do you have in place for allowing motions to extend time lines? c. Is there any system in place for dealing with transcribers, reporters, and attorneys who do not meet deadlines?

0 Fines u Dismissal of case llOther

Tracking

18. Are cases designated for review by the full court or a panel of the court? a. If so, what is the size of the panel?

19. When are they designated as such?

20. Does designation of review by the full court delay the case?

www.ncsconline.org 39 Setting for Argument or Conferencing

21. How is the case set for hearing or conferencing?

22. Does your court have a waiver of oral argument? a. If oral argument is waived, how frequently does this occur? (Estimate percentage) b. Is there oral argument in these cases? (Estimate percentage)

23. In practice, which official(s) may grant a continuance that extends the time line for an appeal?

24. Please estimate the percentage of these appeals where a continuance is granted.

DraftinglCirculatingllssuing Decision

25. How are cases assigned and written? a. Are cases fast-tracked internally? b. Are there time limits for written decisions?

26. What kinds of decisions are usually made for these cases? 0 Written opinion 0 Memorandum 0 Order n Other

27. How is the decision circulated?

28. How are motions for reconsideration handled? a. Are they fast-tracked?

29. Does the appellate court require arbitratiodmediation or an ADR method in dependency cases? a. What type of ADR is used? b. How is arbitration made available to the parties? c. How soon does arbitration take place? d. Who is the arbitrator for these cases? e. Estimate the percentage of cases where arbitration takes place.

40 + Expediting Dependency Appeals i What percentage of cases does it resolve fully? ii What percentage of cases does it resolve partially?

C. EVALUATION QUESTIONS

30. What aspects of expediting dependency case appeals do your courts still want to improve? Do you have any suggestions for improving the process?

3 1. What do you think the impact of expediting dependency appeals has been on the following court clients and officers?

b. Parents/Guardians c. Guardians ad item/CASAS d. Attorneys e. Judges

1) Appellate 2) Trial f. Clerks g. Reporters/Transcribers

32. What is the average length of time between notice of appeal and the case being fully briefed?

a. What is the average amount of time between the case being hlly briefed and issuance of decision?

33. Please, explain how, in your opinion, the expedition of dependency cases affects the quality of decisions for these cases.

34. Has your court conducted any studies on expeditiousness? If so, can you send us a copy of the study?

35. Would information from this project on how other courts expedite appeals be helpful to your court? a. What specific information would be most useful?

www.ncsconline.org + 41 36. Can you suggest anyone else (e.g., judge, clerk, attorney, court reporter) we should interview to get a more complete picture of how the process is working?

37. Can you provide the citation for your rule or statute and fax or mail us a copy? *Try to obtain a copy before the interview and only ask the question if we have not received a copy.

Please remind them to send: 0 Statutes n Any studies

We will send you a copy of the interview. Please review it, make changes, and return it to us. Thank you.

42 Expediting Dependency Appeals Assess the Appellate Environment

0 Establish and create an awareness of the need for change 0 Assess the current process for handling dependency appeals 0 Assess any roadblocks and causes of delay

Appoint a Leader

0 Must be passionate about expediting dependency cases 0 Must have authority 0 Must be accountable 0 Must be able to convene a task force with all stakeholders

Assemble a Task Force

0 Justice or appellate judge 0 Clerks, both trial and appellate levels 0 Court administrator 0 Trial judge 0 Court improvement project leader 0 Attorneys for state and parents 0 GALs/CASAs 0 Court reporters and transcribers 0 Legislator (if legislation is required) 0 Other stakeholders

Develop a Plan

Examine ways to change and improve sources of delay Consider how to make the process uniform throughout the state Use the same forms and rules in each appellate district Address structural issues (e.g., IACs in same state have similar procedures) Encourage cooperation from all stakeholders Improve communication Distribute a newsletter at regular intervals Hold brown-bag status meetings Ask for feedback

www.ncsconline.org + 43 0 Conduct regular meetings 0 Assign specific tasks, as homework, to keep the process moving 0 Look at other states for examples of what does and does not work 0 Develop outcome measures 0 Continue to assess and measure

Draft a Rule

0 Review or copy ruleshtatutes in effect in other states 0 Contact NCSC for examples/samples 0 Draft a statute or court rule to give the force of law and permanency to the expedited process

Implement Internal Operating Procedures

0 Draft internal operating procedures to make the statute or rule effective and workable

Consider Strategies to Improve the Appellate Process Notice of Appeal (NOA)

0 Use an efficient computerized case management system 0 Coordinate clerks fiom the trial and appellate courts 0 Require the party and attorney to sign the NOA 0 NOA should indicate appeal is a dependency matter 0 Order transcript at the time NOA is filed 0 Transfer the record fiom the trial court to the appellate court expeditiously 0 Do not let appellate mediation delay the appeal

Transcripts and the Record

Require the clerk, not the parties, to order transcripts Use technology to expedite transcript production Assess funding barriers to transcript production Devise penalties for attorneys, reporters, and transcribers who do not meet time lines Waive the transcript if appealing on a legal issue Summary process File agreed statement of the facts Use portions of the record

Briefing

0 Shorten briefing time lines for dependency appeals 0 Limit extensions-grant in only extraordinary circumstances 0 Monitor attorneys and briefing schedules 0 Follow through and enforce time lines’ guidelines 0 Same day the appeal is briefed, set it for argument or conference

44 Expediting Dependency Appeals Oral Argument and Conferencing

0 Grant oral argument only when there are significant legal questions at issue 0 Set as soon as appeal is briefed 0 Handle dependency appeals first 0 Save spaces for expedited cases

Decisions

0 Issue decisions from the bench 0 Vote on the case the day it is argued or conferenced 0 Draft dependency appeals before all other opinions 0 Place time limits on judges’ writing 0 Assign one specialized editor to edit dependency opinions 0 Give dependency appeal titles a pseudonym

Post Decisions

0 Mandate on remand or rescript 0 Give immediate notice back to the lawyers and the trial court

Other Ideas

ASSIGNA STAFF ATTORNEY TO MICROMANAGE APPEALS ON A WEEKLY BASIS FROM NOA TO DECI- SION Develop a tracking system Route dependency appeals in a red envelope Include photos of child in file; updated regularly to show the passage of time Devise penalties for delay Dismiss case Levy fines Remove attorney from appointment list Withhold wages

Trial Court Expectations

6 Use one-family/one-judge model at trial court 0 Use best practices to avoid appeals 0 Establish time lines for TPR trials 0 Use mediation 0 Judges should not take cases on advisement 0 Trial judges must fully describe reasoning and findings to avoid appeal 0 Require attorneys to prepare findings and conclusions of law 0 Sign and distribute final orders as soon as prepared 0 Alert court clerks to the need to expedite the processing of NOAs and records 0 Assign a specific clerk to prepare files for appeal 0 Encourage counsel to remain on case for appeal 0 Comply strictly with all time requirements for each step of the process

www,ncsconline.org 45 Review and Refine the Process

0 Fund a staff person (at the appellate level) as a central contact to enforce rules and internal operating procedures 0 Fund a staff person at the trial court to track cases preparing for appeal 0 Fund additional specialized court-appointed attorneys at the appellate level 0 Evaluate process at regular intervals 0 Collect and use statistics 0 Analyze outcome measures 0 Measure and refine internal operating procedures 0 Share evaluations with stakeholders and the community 0 Train all stakeholders d Justices d Judges d Attorneys d GALs/CASAs d Court administrators d Clerks 0 Conduct training and encourage communication at national committee meetings, e&, d Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of State Court Administrators d National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks d The National Center’s Distance Learning Center-online education d National Association for Court Management d National Association of State Judicial Educators d Guardians ad litem/Court-appointed special advocates associations 0 Establish mentodpartner relationships with similarly situated states

46 Expediting Dependency Appeals Alabama ALA Code $26-10A-26: Appeals in Adoption Matters. Adoption cases have priority over all other matters. http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeofAlabama/l975/coatoc.htm ALA Code $12-15-120: Appeals in Juvenile Matters. All appeals generating from this (juvenile code includes delinquency, status offenses, dependency, and TPR) shall take precedence over all other appeals (1 975). http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeofA1aba1na/1975/coatoc.htm AL. R. Juv. P. 28: Alabama Rules of Juvenile Procedure. Appeals that involve the “withhold- ing” of child custody shall be heard at the earliest time practicable (1977). NOTE: this may also include dependency and TPR appeals. http://www.alacourt.org/Publications/Rules/Juvenile/rule28.htm

Alaska AK. App. R. 218: Expedited Appeals in Child Custody Cases. Covers all expedited matters. Covers appeals from custody decisions; adoption proceedings; child-in-need-of-aid proceedings; injunctive actions relating to domestic violence if the presence or absence of a provision relating to the custody of children in the judgment is an issue on appeal; appeals from the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act; and appeals concerning the guardianship of minors. Oral arguments should be heard at the earliest date convenient to the court. http://www.state.ak.us/courts/rules/app.htm-28

Arizona Ariz. R. Proc. Juv. Ct. R. 88: Appellate court shall give appeals from juvenile court orders precedence over all other actions, except extraordinary writs or special actions. No bond is required in any court in connection with an appeal from a final order of the juvenile court. http://azrules.westgroup.com/Find/Default .wl?DocName=AZJUVCT88&FindType=W&DB=AZ- TOC- WEB%3BSTAAZTOC&RS=WLW2%2EO7&VR=2%2EO Ariz. R. Proc. Juv. Ct. R. 89: Notice of appeal must be filed within 15 days of final judgment. Notice of cross-appeal must be filed within 10 days of notice of appeal. Immediately upon filing notice of appeal, the clerk of the superior court shall serve copies on all parties or their counsel, on the court reporter, on the juvenile court word-processing operator, and on the clerk of the court of appeals. Appellant may file a designation of record with the clerk of the superior court within 5 days of filing notice of appeal. Appellee may file a supplemental designation of record within

www.ncsconline.org 0 47 12 days of filing notice of appeal. http://azrules.westgroup.com/Find/Default.wl?DocName=AZJUVCTR89&FindType=W&DB=AZ -TOC-WEB%~BSTAAZTOC&LRS=WLW~%~EO~&VR=~%~EO Ariz. R. Proc. Juv. Ct. R. 90: Court reporter shall file the complete original transcript with the clerk of the court of appeals no more than 30 days after the filing of the notice of appeal by a government agency or an order of the juvenile court judge, or after the appellant arranges to pay for the transcript. The clerk of the superior court has only 20 days to prepare complete file. http://azrules. westgroup.com/Find/Default .wl?DocName=AZJUVCTR9O&FindType=W&DB=AZ -TOC-WEB%3BSTAAZTOC&RS=WLW2%2EO7&VR=2%2EO

Arkansas AR. R. App. P. Civ. R. 2: Appeals from juvenile court are to be made in the same time and manner as those from circuit court. http://courts.state.at.us/rules/appprocciv.html#2

California CA. Ct. R. 39.1A: Expedited TPRAppeals. Appellant’s brief must be filed within 30 days of filing the record in the reviewing court. Respondent’s brief must be served and filed within 30 days of appellant’s brief. Minor’s brief must be filed and served within 20 days of the filing of respondent’s brief. Oral argument shall be held no later than 60 days after appellant’s reply bricf is filed. http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/2002/titleone/30-80-1 5.htm#P644-7 1489 CA. Ct. R. 39.1B: Upon the order setting a dependency case for TPR, the litigant may file a “Notice of Intent to File Writ Petition” with the trial court. (This triggers the trial court to prepare the transcript.) If the litigant does not file the writ, the litigant cannot appeal the final judgment of TPR. littp://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/2002/tit1eone/30-80-1 6.htm#P736-82905

Florida FL. R. App. P. R. 9.146: Allows courts to give priority to appeals in juvenile dependency, TPR, and cases involving children in need of services. http://www. flabar.org/tfbtemplates.nsf/

Georgia GA Const. Art. VI, 5 IX, 7 11: Requires appellate courts to dispose of every case in the tern? in which it is entered on the court’s docket or the next term. http://www.law.emory.edu/GEORGIA/gaconst/art-6.litml- sec-9 OCGA 89-10-1: Preference is given to cases in which the state is a plaintiff. This affects dependency cases that involve child abuse and neglect, CINA, and some TPR and custody appeals. http://www.ganet .org/cgi-bin/pub/ocode/ocgsearch?number=9-1 0- 1 Ct. of Appeals, Internal Operations Manual, Section XV(P), 41: Provides for expedition of cases involving child custody.

48 + Expediting Dependency Appeals Idaho Rule 12.1: Permissive appeal in custody cases. Family law issues are handled by the magistrate court and are appealed to the district court with any further appeal then going to the Idaho Supreme Court. This rule allows the parties to skip the appeal to the district court and come directly to the supreme court to expedite the case. The new rule does make the appeal directly to the supreme court a permissive one, but the standard is the best interest of the child (amended July 2002). http://www2.state.id.us/judicial/rules/iar12- 1 .rul

Illinois IL. S.C. R. 311: Court may place case on an accelerated docket on its own accord on motion of one of the parties. http://www.state.il.us/court/SupremeCourt/Rules/Art~III/ArtI~~.htm- 3 1 1

Indiana IN. R. App. P. 10: Motions by the clerk for an extension to complete the clerk’s record in appeals involving custody, support, visitation, paternity, adoption, determination that a child is in need of services, and termination of parental rights are disfavored and are granted only in extraordinary circumstances. http://www.in.gov/judiciary/rules/appellate/index.html IN. R. App. P. 1 I: Motions by the court reporter for an extension of time to complete the transcript in appeals involving custody, support, visitation, paternity, adoption, determination that a child is in need of services, and termination of parental rights are disfavored and are granted only in extraordinary circumstances. http://www.in .gov/judiciary/rules/appellate/index.html

Iowa IA. R. App. P. R. 5(b): Notice of Appeal from juvenile court order terminating child-parent relationship or dismissing a petition to terminate the parent-child relationship must be filed within 15 days of entry of the order or within I5 days of a ruling on a motion for new trial as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 247. Notice of cross-appeal must be filed within 15 days for taking an appeal or within 5 days after taking the appeal. http://www.judicial .state. ia.us/orders/orders/Renumbered-court-rules.pdf IA. R. App. P. R. 6: Notice of appeal filed pursuant to rule 5b must be filed with the clerk of court where the order, judgment, or decree was entered. Notice cannot be filed unless signed by both appellant’s counsel and appellant. Notice must substantially comply with form that accompanies rules. Promptly after filing with the clerk of the district court the appellant shall mail or deliver an informational copy of the notice to the supreme court. To perfect such an appeal the appellant must also file a petition in conformance with rule 15 1 with the clerk of the supreme court within 15 days of filing the notice of appeal. http://wwW.judicial .state.ia.us/orders/orders/Renumbered-court-rules.pdf IA. R. App. P. R.6.5(2): Notice of appeal from final orders entered in child in need of assistance proceedings, a juvenile court order terminating the parent-child relationship or dismissing a peti-

www.ncsconline.org 49 tion to terminate the parent-child relationship pursuant to Iowa Code section 232.1 17, or fiom a post-termination order entered pursuant to Iowa Code section 232.1 17 must be filed within, and not after, 15 days from the entry of the order, unless a motion for new trial as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.1007 or a motion as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.904(2) is filed, and then within 15 days after the entry of a ruling on such motion. An appeal under this subrule is not perfected until both the notice of appeal and the petition on appeal as provided in rule 6.6(4) are timely filed. A notice of cross-appeal may be filed within the 15 days for taking an appeal or in any event within 5 days after the appeal is taken. A cross-appeal is not perfected until both the notice of cross- appeal and the petition on appeal as provided in rule 6.6(4) are timely filed. IA. R. App. P. R.6.6(3): A notice of appeal filed pursuant to rule 6.5(2) must be filed with the clerk of court where the order, judgment, or decree was entered. The notice cannot be filed unless signed by appellant’s counsel and appellant.* The notice of appeal shall substantially comply with the notice of appeal form that accompanies these rules. The notice shall specify the parties taking the appeal and the decree, judgment, order, or part thereof from which an appeal is taken. The appellant shall serve a copy of the notice on each other party or counsel in the manner prescribed in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.442(2). The notice of appeal presented to the clerk of the district court for filing shall be accompanied by proof of service in the form prescribed in Iowa R. Civ. J? 1.442(7). Promptly after filing the notice of appeal with the clerk of the district court, the appellant shall mail or deliver an informational copy of such notice to the clerk of the supreme court.

*Counsel who are unable to file a notice of appeal because of thc unavailability of thc appcllant to sign the notice may file with the clerk of the district court a certification of diligent search that substantially complies with the counsel’s certification of diligcnt scarch form, which accompanies these rules. IA. R. App. P. R.6.6(4): To perfect an appeal filed pursuant to rule 6.5(2), the appellant must also file with the clerk of the supreme court a petition on appeal in conformance with rule 6.15 1. The petition on appeal must be filed with the clerk of the supreme court within, and not after, 15 days from the filing of the notice of appeal. The appellant shall file an informational copy of the petition on appeal with the district court and serve a copy on each other party or counsel in the manner prescribed in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.442(2). The petition on appeal shall be accompanied by proof of service in the form prescribed in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.442(7). The petition on appeal shall be prepared by appellant’s trial counsel. Trial counsel may only be relieved of this obligation by the district court upon a showing of extraordinary circumstances. If, after the filing of a notice of appeal, no petition on appeal has been filed with the clerk of the supreme court within I5 days, the appeal is not perfected and shall be dismissed and the parties shall proceed as if 110 notice of appeal had been filed.

IA. R. App. P. R.6.10(2): Transcript; duty of appellant to order atid tofile combined certificate.

Q. Within four days after filing the notice of appeal, appellant shall order in writing from the reporter a transcript of such parts of the proceedings not already on file as appellant deems necessary for inclusion in the record. Appellant shall certify that the transcript has been ordered by using the combined certificate form found in rule 6.75 1, form 1. Within four days after filing the notice of appeal, appellant shall complete the combined certificate, serve it on all parties to the appeal and on the reporter from whom the transcript was ordered, and file it with the clerks of both the district and the supreme court. The combined certificate shall be filed in all cases, regardless of whether a transcript is ordered. 6. The combined certificate shall be deemed a professional statement by any attorney sign- ing it that the transcript has been ordered in good faith, that no arrangements have been

50 + Expediting Dependency Appeals made or suggested to delay the preparation thereof, and that payment therefore will be made in accordance with these rules. IA. R. App. P. R.6.33: Frivolous appeals; withdrawal of counsel. With the exception of appeals in chapter 232 child in need of assistance and termination cases filed pursuant to rule 6.5(2), rule 6.104 applies to appeals to the supreme court under Iowa Code section 822.9 of the Uniform Postconviction Procedure Act, and to all cases for which appellate review is sought by court- appointed counsel. IA. R. App. P. R.6.151: The appellant shall file with the clerk of the supreme court eighteen copies of the petition on appeal. IA. R.App. P. R.6.151(1): Fonnat. All petitions on appeal shall substantially comply with the petition on appeal form that accompanies these rules. The petition shall not exceed 15 pages, excluding the attachments required by rule 6.15 1 (2)v), and shall be in the form prescribed by rule 6.16( I), except that it may be printed or duplicated on one side of the sheet. The petition shall include a blue cover, which shall contain (1) the caption of the case; (2) the title of the document (petition on appeal pursuant to Iowa R. App. P. 6.6(4)); (3) the name of the court and judge whose decision is under review; and (4) the name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number of counsel representing the party on whose behalf the appeal is filed. The front cover shall contain a certificate of confidentiality in accordance with rule 6.34. IA. R. App. P. R.6.151(2): Efenzents. The petition on appeal shall include all of the following ele- ments:

a. A statement of the nature of the case and the relief sought. b. The date the judgment or order for which review is sought was entered.

c. A concise statement of the material facts as they relate to the issues presented in the petition on appeal. d. A statement of the legal issues presented for appeal, including a statement of how the issues arose and how they were preserved for appeal. The issue statements should be concise and set forth specific legal questions. General, conclusory statements such as “the juvenile court’s ruling is not supported by law or the facts” are not acceptable. e. The petition should include supporting statutes, case law, and other legal authority for each issue raised, including authority contrary to appellant’s case, if known. f: In appeals from an order terminating parental rights or dismissing the termination petition, the petition on appeal shall have attached to it: (1) a copy of the petition (and any amendments) for termination of parental rights filed in the juvenile court proceedings; (2) a copy of the order, judgment, or decree terminating parental rights or dismissing the termination petition; and (3) a copy of any rulings on a motion for new trial as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.1007 or a motion as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.904(2).

g. In appeals from a post-termination order, the petition on appeal shall have attached to it: (I) a copy of the order, judgment, or decree terminating parental rights; (2) a copy of the post-termination order from which the appeal was taken; and (3) any motion(s) or resistance(s) related to the post-termination order from which the appeal was taken. h. In appeals from child in need of assistance proceedings, the petition on appeal shall have attached to it (1) a copy of the order(s) or judgment(s) from which the appeal was taken;

www.ncsconline.org 51 and (2) a copy of any rulings on a motion for new trial as provided in Iowa R. Civ. l? 1.1007 or a motion as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. I .904(2). IA. R. App. P. R.6.152: Response. 6.152(1) Time,forJlhg. Any potential appellee may file a response to the petition on appeal. An appellee wishing to file a response to the petition on appeal must file eighteen copies with the clerk of the supreme court within 15 days of service of the appellant’s petition on appeal. The appellee shall serve a copy of the response on each other party or counsel in the manner prescribed in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.442(2). 6.152(2) Format. Appellee’s response shall substantially comply with the response to petition on appeal form that accompanies these rules. The response shall not exceed 15 pages, and shall be in the form prescribed by rule 6.16( I), except that it may be printed or duplicated on one side of the sheet. The response shall include a red cover, which shall contain (1) the caption of the case; (2) the title of the document (response to petition on appeal); (3) the name of the court and judge whose decision is under review; and (4) the name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number of counsel representing the party on whose behalf the response is filed. The front cover shall contain a certificate of confidentiality in accordance with rule 6.34. IA. R. App. P. R.6.153: Docketing, Record for Review, and Transmission of Record. Within 30 days after the filing of the notice of appeal, the appellant shall docket the case pursuant to rule 6.12(2)(a) and request the clerk of the district court to transmit the record to the clerk of the supreme court. The record for review shall be certified by the clerk of the district court who shall also certify its confidential nature. 6.153(1) In appeals from termination proceedings, the record for review of a petition on appeal shall include all of the following:

a. The termination of parental rights court file, including all exhibits. b. Those portions of the child in need of assistance court file, either received as exhibits or judicially noticed in the termination proceedings.

c. The transcript of the termination hearing. IA. R. App. P. R.6.153(2): In appeals from post-termination proceedings, the record for review of a petition on appeal shall include all of the following:

a. The order, judgment, or decree terminating parental rights. b. The post-termination order from which the appeal was taken.

c. Any motion(s), resistance(s), or transcript(s) related to the post-termination order from which the appeal was taken. IA. R. App. P. R.6.153(3): In appeals from child in need of assistance proceedings, the record for review of a petition on appeal shall include all of the following:

a. The child in need of assistance court file, including all exhibits. b. Any transcript of a child in need of assistance hearing from which the appeal was taken. IA. R. App. P. R.6.154: Ruling. 6.154(1) After reviewing the petition on appeal, any response, and the record, the appellate court may affirm the juvenile court decision, reverse the juvenile court decision, remand the case to the juvenile court, or set the case for full briefing pursuant to rules 6.13 and 6.17 or as directed by the court. 6.154(2) If the court of appeals affirms, reverses, or remands the juvenile court order, judgment, or decree, further review pursuant to rule 6.402

52 + Expediting Dependency Appeals may be sought. The refusal of the court of appeals to grant full briefing shall not be a ground for further review. IA. R. App. P. R.6.402: Application for Further Review. 6.402(1) Fee. A fee of $25 shall be required for filing an application to the supreme court for further review of a decision of the court of appeals. 6.402(2) Tiine,forfiling. An application for further review in an appeal from a child in need of assistance or termination of parental rights proceeding shall be filed within ten days following the filing of the decision of the court of appeals. In all other cases, an application for further review shall be filed within twenty days following the filing of the decision of the court of appeals. 6.402(3) Gi-ounds. An application to the supreme court for further review shall allege precisely and in what manner the court of appeals has done any of the following: a. Made an error of law. b. Rendered a decision which is in conflic! with a prior holding of a published court of appeals decision or published supreme court decision. c. Failed to consider a potentially controlling constitutional provision in rendering its opinion. d. Decided a case which should have been retained by the supreme court. 6.402(4) Form and length of application and resistance and number to be.filed. Each copy of the application for further review shall contain or be accompanied by a copy of the opinion of the court of appeals, showing the date of its filing. The application shall be a single document including a brief in support of the request for review. All contentions in support of the application shall be included therein, including all legal authorities and argument. In all cases other than appeals from Iowa Code chapter 232, child in need of assistance or termination proceedings, a party who desires to file a resistance shall do so within ten days after service of the application. No resistance will be received in child of need of assistance or termination proceedings unless requested by the supreme court. The resistance shall be a single document, which includes all contentions in opposition to the application. The cover of the application for further review and resistance should be yellow. The cover of the application or resistance thereto shall contain (1) the name of the court and the appellate number of the case; (2) the title of the case (see rule 6. I2( 1)); (3) the date of filing of the court of appeals’ opinion under review; (4)the title of the document; and (5) the name, address, and telephone number of counsel representing the party on whose behalf the document is filed. No authorities or argument may be incorporated into the application or the resistance by reference to another document. An application or resistance shall be in the form prescribed by rule 6.16( l), except that it may be printed or duplicated on one side of the sheet. The application or resistance shall not exceed 20 pages exclusive of the court of appeals opinion, table of contents, table of authorities, and permitted evidentiary exhibits and district court orders. No materials shall be annexed to or filed with an application or resistance other than the opinion of the court of appeals, except that, if it is of unusual significance, an evidentiary exhibit not exceeding ten pages and a district court order not exceeding that length may be annexed. Eighteen copies of an application or a resistance shall be filed. In addition, two copies shall be served on each other party separately represented. IA. R. App. P. R.6.402(6): Procedendo. When an application for further review is denied by order of the supreme court or by operation of law, the clerk of the supreme court shall immediately issue procedendo.

www.ncsconline.org 53 IA. R. App. P. R. 12: Reduces time for docketing an appeal involving the termination of the child-parent relationship to within 30 days after the notice of appeal is filed (as opposed to forty days). http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/orders/orders/Renumbered~court~rules.pdf 1A. R. App. P. R. 13: In TPR cases the expedited time for filing under rule 17 shall run from the date on which the full briefing is ordered. http://www.judicial .state.ia.us/orders/orders/Renumbered~court~rules.pdf IA. R. App. P. R. 17: Cases Involving Expedited Times for Filings. In appeals involving a con- test as to custody of children, adoption, or a petition to terminate parental rights, and juvenile proceedings affecting child placement, times prescribed for serving and filing briefs, other than reply briefs, times prescribed for determining the contents of the appendix, and times prescribed for filing an agreed statement of the case, shall be cut in half. Appendix and reply briefs, except for appellee’s reply brief, shall be served and filed not more than 15 days after service of appellee’s proof brief. Printed or duplicated copies of all briefs in final form shall be served and filed within 7 days after service of the appendix. An appellee’s reply brief shall be filed and served within 7 days of appellant’s reply brief. Court reporters shall give priority to transcription of these proceedings over other civil transcripts. http://www.judicial .state.ia.us/orde~s/orders/Renurnbered~court~rules.pdf IA. R. App. P. R. 32 Appellate Rule 104: Regarding withdrawal of appointed counsel in belief that an appeal is frjvolous does not apply to termination cases. http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/orders/orders/Renumbered~court~rules.pdf

Louisiana Unif. R. LA. Ct. App. R. 5: Appeals in cases involving child or family in need of services, delinquency, involuntary TPR, surrender of parental rights, adoption and protection of terminally ill children, and modification of custody are designated for expedited handling. No extensions except upon showing of extraordinary circumstances. Appellant’s brief is to be filed not later than I5 days after filing of record and appellee’s brief is to be filed not later than 30 days and the reply brief not later than 5 calendar days after that filing. Appeals and writs in these cases are to be considered by priority, and the court is to render opinions expeditiously on or before next scheduled opinion release date. http://www.la-fcca.org/uniform-rules.htm- Rule 5

Maine ME. R.App. P. R. 7: Briefing schedule for all appeals is reduced from 40-30-14 to 35-28-14. h ttp ://ww w.court s .sta te. me. us/m rap tex t .h tm

Maryland . MD. R. P. R. 8-207: Within five days of order directing preparation of record, appellant shall order the transcript and make an agreement for payment. Court reporter has 20 days to file transcript with clerk of lower court. Clerk of lower court shall transmit record to court of special appeals within 30 days of order. Appellant’s reply brief is due within 15 days of filing of appellee’s brief. http://l98.187.128.12/maryland/lpext.dll?f=teniplates&fn=fs-n~ain.htm&2.0

54 + Expediting Dependency Appeals Michigan MI. C. R. 7.212: In child custody case, appellant has 28 days to file brief with court of appeals. Time extended only by court of appeals on motion. Appellee has 21 days after appellant files brief to file appellee brief. MI. C.R. 7.213: Priority is given to child custody cases in calendaring. Mich. Comp. Law 5722.1313: Child custody appeals may be taken in accordance with proceedings set out in expedited appellate procedures in other civil cases. http://michiganlegislature.org/law/mileg.asp?page=gctObject&objName=mcl-722-13 1 3- new&highlight=

Minnesota MN. Juv. Prot. R. 82: Appeal shall be taken within 30 days of filing of order. Notice of review shall be filed within 15 days of notice of appeal. The completion of the transcript shall not exceed 30 days. Decisions shall be issued by the appellate court within 60 days of the date the case is submitted. http://www,courts.state.mn.us/rules/juvenile/JUVPRT.htm- 582

Montana R. App. P. 21: There shall be a presumption against granting motions for extensions of time to file briefs in appeals of termination of parental rights and abused, dependent, and neglected children cases. Motions may be granted only upon a showing of diligence and substantial need. Motions must be filed at least 7 days before the expiration of time for filing the brief. http://data.opi.state.mt.us/bills/mca/25/2 1/2502 10052 1 O.htm

Nebraska Rule 9: Motions for Extension of Time in Advanced Cases. Only one extension will be granted for a maximum of 30 days based upon a showing of “exceptional cause.” This is a relatively recent change and is being strictly enforced by the appellate court. http://court.nol.org/rules/rulesindex.htm Rule 11: Appeals involving custody of minor children will be advanced without motion. http://court.nol .org/rules/rulesindex.htm

Nevada

NV. R. App. P. 31 : Filing and Service of Briefs. Briefing schedule in appeal cases involving custody, visitation, or termination of parental rights reduced to 90-20-10. Matter shall be submitted for decision within 60 days of the date the final brief is due. Extensions of time granted only in extraordinary cases that present unforeseeable circumstances. No extensions of time by stipu- lation. http://www.leg.state.nv.us/other/cr/NRAP.html

www.ncsconline.org + 55 Ohio OH. R. App. P. R. 11.2: Adoption and parental rights appeals given calendar priority over all other cases. Preparation of the record in these cases shall be given priority. Extensions of time for filing briefs shall only be granted in the most unusual circumstances and for the most com- pelling reasons in the interest of justice. Oral argument shall be heard within 30 days of filing briefs. Judgment shall be entered within 30 days of filing briefs or the hearing of oral argument. http://www,sconet.state.oh.us/Rules/appellate/default.asp- rule 1 1 -2 OH. S.C. R. II-IX: Time for’appellant to file notice of appeal and accompanying memorandum in support of jurisdiction reduced to twenty days from forty-five days for nonexpedited appeals, and twenty days for the appellee to file the memorandum in response. Once the parties have filed, the amendments require the court to “expedite its review and determination” of whether to grant or deny jurisdiction. In TPR and adoption appeals, the appeals court must expedite and give priority to preparing and transmitting the record. http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/Rules/practice/

Oklahoma OK S.C. R. l.lO(c)(3): In appeals from paternity proceedings, and cases under tlie Oklahonia Children’s Code, Juvenile Code, or Adoption Code, appellant’s brief shall be filed within 20 days after the parties are notified that the record is complete. Appellee’s brief shall be filed within 15 days, and appellant’s reply brief shall be filed within 10 days. OK S.C. R. 1.23(d) Appeals to the supreme court involving paternity proceedings, and cases under the Oklahoma Children’s Code, Juvenile Code, or Adoption Code, are commenced by filing a petition in error and 14 copies with the clerk of the supreme court. http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocume1it.asp?citeID=73527 OK S.C. R. 1.28 (b)(3): In appeals to the supreme court involving paternity proceedings, and cases under the Oklahoma Children’s Code, Juvenile Code, or Adoption Code, appellant’s designation of record shall be filed in 10 days of the date of the order appeal. Appellee then has IO days for counter-designation. http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocu~nent.asp?citeID=73532 OK S.C. R. 1.34: In appeals to the supreme court involving paternity proceedings, and cases under the Oklahoma Children’s Code, Juvenile Code, or Adoption Code, notice of completion of the record shall be filed with the court immediately upon completion. In adoption appeals the record shall be completed no later than 30 days from the date the petition in error is filed in the Oklahoma Supreme Court. http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocu~nent.asp?cite~D=7353 8

Oregon OR. R.App. P. 10.15: In termination of parental rights cases, words “Termination of Parental Rights” must be prominently displayed. Within 7 days of filing the notice of appeal, appellant shall arrange for preparation of the transcript. Court shall not extend the time more tlian 14 days. Court shall not grant an extension of time to request correction of tlie transcript, except on a showing of exceptional circumstances. Appellant’s brief must be filed within 28 days. Respondent’s brief must be filed within 28 days of appellant’s brief. No reply brief. Court shall not grant an extension of time more than 14 days for filing brief, and only one extension shall be

56 + Expediting Dependency Appeals allowed. Oral argument shall be set within 56 days of filing opening brief. Motion made before oral argument shall not toll time for transmission of the record, filing of briefs, or hearing of arguments. Supreme Court shall not grant extension of more than 21 days for filing a petition for review. http://www.ojd.state.or.us/ojdinternet.nsf/ByDominoFilename/assets~ORAP-1 O.pdf/$FILE/ORAP- 1 O.pdf

South Dakota SD App. R. 15-26A-6.1: Any appeal fr0m.a judgment or an order in an adoption, neglect, or abuse proceeding, including a judgment or order terminating parental rights, must be taken within 30 days after written notice of the filing thereof shall be given to the party appealing. http://www.state.sd.us/state/judicial/court_proced/appellat1 .htm - 15-26A-2.1 SD App. R. 15-26A-75 in appeals taken pursuant to 15-26A-6.1: Appellant’s brief is due within 25 days after service of notice of appeal if transcript is obtained before appeal or not ordered. Appellant’s brief is due within 25 days of service of the transcript or filings of the statements provided for in 15-26A-54 or 15-26A-55, if transcript is ordered but not received before appeal. Appellee’s brief is due within 25 days of service of appellant’s brief. Appellant’s reply brief is due within 15 days of service of appellee’s brief. http://www.state.sd.us/state/judicial/court~procedappellat4.htm SD App R. 15-26A-76: An extension of time for filing a brief in an adoption or an abuse and neglect action will be granted only upon application and notice, said application to be made to the chief justice of the supreme court and allowed only for good cause. http://www.state.sd.us/state/judicial/court~proced/appellat4.htm

Tennessee TN R. App. P. 2 Suspension of Rules: For good cause the supreme court and courts of appeals may suspend requirements of any rule in a particular case. Applies to all types of appeals. http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/

Vermont VT R. App. P. 3 (d): Family law cases must be indicated as such on the notice of appeal. http:// 198.187.128.12/vermont/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=fs-main.htm&2.0 VT R. App. P. 10 (b)(7): In family law cases, appellant shall order the transcript at the same time the notice of appeal is filed. http://l98.187.128.12/vermont/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=fs-main.htm&2.O VT R. App. P. 26(b): In family law cases, more time will be granted only in cases of extraordinary circumstances. http://l98.187.l28.12/vermont/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=fs-main.ht1n&2.O

Washington WA St. Ct. R. on App. 18.12: Appellate court may set any review proceeding for accelerated disposition. http://www.courts.wa.gov/rules/display.cfm?group=app&set=~P&ruleid=apprap1 8.12

www.ncsconline.org + 57 WA St. Ct. R. on App. 18.13: Juvenile dependency and termination of parental rights dispositions shall be reviewed by accelerated review done by motion. http://www.courts.wa.gov/rules/display.cfm?group=app&set=~P&ruleid=apprap1 8.13 WA St. Ct. R. on App. 18.16: Expedited Appeal Review. Allows for parties to jointly petition court for expedited review of appeal. Petition must be filed within 15 days after appeal is filed. Court can also select cases for expedited review under 18.12. Within 30 days of granting petition, parties must file an agreed report of proceedings. Report is limited to five pages. Briefs are limited to ten pages and two issues. Appellant’s brief must be filed within 15 days of agreed report. Respondent’s brief must be filed within 15 days of service of appellant’s brief. Oral argument is limited to 15 minutes for each side. Decision shall be rendered within 30 days of oral argument or approval of waiver of oral argument, except in extraordinary circumstances. http://www.courts. wa.gov/rules/display.cfm?group=app&set=RP&ruleid=apprap I 8. I 6

West Virginia WV R. Proc. for Child Abuse and Neg. Proc. R. 49: Accelerated Appeal for Abuse, Neglect and TPR Cases. “In order to provide the most inexpensive and expeditious procedure for appeal of Circuit Court orders under W. Va. Code Section 49-6-1 et seq., a petitioner shall file his or her petition for appeal within 60 days of judgment without presentation of a transcript using the procedure provided in Rule 4A of the Rules of Appellate Procedure. As provided therein, petitioner may submit a part of the transcript of testimony or those sections, which are necessary evidence to support his or her petition. An extension of the time limitations for appeal not to exceed an additional 60 days, may be granted by the court on the grounds that no transcript of the proceedings has been prepared but only upon a showing of extraordinary circumstances, and further provided that the request for an extension of time has been filed and served prior to the expiration of the initial 60 day time period for filing the petition for appeal. The bond for costs otherwise required by Rule 4A(e) of the Rules of Appellate Procedure shall be waived pursuant to this rule. The Supreme Court of appeals shall give priority to appeals of abuse and/or neglect proceedings and TPR cases and shall establish and administer an accelerated schedule in each case, to include the completion of the record, briefing, oral argument, and decision.” (Amended by order adopted and effective January 25, 2000.) http://www.state. wv.us/wvscaJrules/abuseand.pdf

58 Expediting Dependency Appeals Rule 6.701 -Table 3: Chapter 232 Child in Need of Assistance and Termination Cases.

Appellate Procedure Timetable No. 3 (For use in chapter 232 child in need of assistance and termination cases only)

DUE DATES

1. Notice of appeal. A notice of appeal must be filed within, and not after, 15 days from the entry of the juvenile court order. See rule 6.5(2). Notice of appeal cannot be filed unless signed by both appellant’s counsel and appellant. See rule 6.6(3).

2. Combined certificate. Within four days after filing notice of appeal appellant shall certify the transcript has been ordered by using the combined certificate form. See rule 6.10(2). District court clerk transmits certified copy of notice of appeal and docket entries to supreme court clerk and all parties. See rule 6.1 1(1).

3. Petition on appeal. Appellant must file petition on appeal within 15 days from filing of notice of appeal in order to perfect appeal. See rules 6.6(4) and 6.151.

4. Response to petition. Response to petition may be filed within 15 days of service of petition. See rule 6.152.

5. Docketing and request for record. Appellant dockets appeal and requests transmission of record. See rules 6.12(2)(a) and 6.153.

6. Full briefing. Briefing is done only in cases in which the appellate court orders full briefing. See rule 6.154. In such cases appellant shall file two proof copies and serve one proof copy of brief and designation of parts of record to be included in appendix within 25 days from the date on which full briefing is ordered. All further deadlines shall be as provided in rules 6.13 and 6.17.

www.ncsconline.org 59 Rule 6.751-Form 3: Notice of Appeal (Cross-Appeal) (Child in Need of Assistance and Termination Cases).

IN THE DISTRICT COURT FOR COUNTY IN THE INTEREST OF Juvenile No.

,CHILD(REN) NOTICE OF APPEAL (CROSS-APPEAL) (CHILD IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE AND TERMINATION CASES)

TO: Clerk of the District Court for County and (Insert names of parties)

and Clerk of the Iowa Supreme Court

NOTICE is hereby given that as counsel for

~~~~ ~ hereby appeals from the

(CHECK ONE)

0 order terminating the parent-child relationship or dismissing a petition to terminate the parent-child relationship entered pursuant to Iowa Code section 232.1 17 on the day of

9 20- 0 post-termination order entered pursuant to Iowa Code section 232.1 17 on the day of 3 20- u following order(s) in a child in need of assistance proceeding: entered on the day of

3 20 , and all adverse rulings made therein.

Signature, attorney for appellant. Name, address, telephone.

Signature of appellant.' Name, address, telephone.

' The signature of the appellant is required by Iowa Rule of Appellate Procedure 6.6(3)

60 Expediting Dependency Appeals PROOF OF SERVICE AND CERTIFICATE OF FILING

I certify that on the day of , 20-, I served this document by ( personally delivering) ( mailing) a copy to all other parties or attorneys whose names and addresses are shown below.

I further certify that on the day of , 20-, I will file this document by ( personally delivering) ( mailing) a copy of it to the Clerk of the District Court for County.

Signature of person serving and filing notice of appeal. Name, address, telephone.

Persons served:

www.ncsconline.org + 61 Rule 6.751-Form 4: Petition on Appeal (Cross-Appeal) (Child in Need of Assistance and Termination Cases).

IN THE INTEREST OF Supreme Court No. Juvenile Court No.

PETITION ON APPEAL (CROSS-APPEAL) (CHILD IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE AND , CHILD(REN) TERMINATION CASES)

county Judge

The names of the parties involved in this appeal and their designations in juvenile court are shown below in column A. Their respective attorneys’ names, law firms, addresses, and telephone numbers are shown below in column B. Column A Column B Parties Attorneys

Appellant(s):

Appellee(s):

1. This Petition on Appeal is filed on behalf of , the mother/father/child/State/Intervenor/other , in the above-identified

(CHECK ONE) 0 child in need of assistance 0 termination of parental rights 0 post-termination proceeding, with rcspect to child(ren):

Child(ren)’s Name(s) Date(s) of Birth

62 Expediting Dependency Appeals 2. (If applicable), parental rights were terminated by the juvenile court pursuant to Iowa Code section(s) 232.i 16 ( ) as to the mother and Iowa Code section(s) 232.1 16 ( ) as to the father. (Insert specific subsection(s))

If appealing from a CINA order, indicate as to the mother on what statutory ground(s) the child(ren) were adjudicated in need of assistance ( ) and indicate as to the father on what statutory ground(s) the child(ren) were adjudicated in need of assistance ( ) (Insert specific subsection(s))

3. Appellant’s attorney, , idis not the attorney who rcpresented appellant at trial.

4. Are there any other pending appeals involving the child(ren)? If so, list: Case Name; Supreme Court No.: Type of Appeal: (e.g., appeal from adjudication/disposition, dissolution)

5. The relevant dates regarding this appeal are the following: a. Date of adjudication b. Date of last removal (excluding any trial period at home of less than 30 days)

c. Date of disposition d. Date(s) of any review hearings e. Date of any permanency hearing f. Date(s) termination petition fileaamended g. Date(s) of termination hearing h. Date(s) of child in need of assistance order(s) from which appeal was taken

i. Date of termination or dismissal order from which appeal was taken

j. Date of post-termination order from which appeal was taken k. Date notice of appeal filed 1. Any other date(s)/hearing(s) material to appeal

www.ncsconline.org + 63 6. Nature of case and relief sought: The appellant seeks a reversal of the juvenile court order: a. terminating the parental rights of with respect to the child(ren) ; OR (Inscrt name(s)) b. dismissing a petition to terminate the parental rights of with respect to the child(ren), OR (Insert name(s)) c. If seeking reversal or modification of a CINA order, specify the relief requested:

d. OTHER (specify)

7. State the material facts as they relate to the issues presented for appeal:

8. State the legal issues presented for appeal, including a statement of how the issues arose and how they were preserved for appeal: The issue statenlent should be concise in nature setting forth speclfic legal questions. General

conclusions, such as “the trial court j. ruling is not supported by law or tke,facts ” are not acceptable. Include supporting legal authorir))for each issue raised, including authority contrary to appellant’s case, If known. a. Issue 1:

Was error preserved? 0yes 0no. If yes, state how: Supporting legal authority for Issue 1:

b. Issue 11:

Was error preserved? 0yes 0no. If yes, state how: Supporting legal authority of Issue 11:

(Additional issues may he added)

64 Expediting Dependency Appeals 9. I hereby certify I will request within 30 days after the filing of the notice of appeal that the clerk of the trial court transmit immediately to the clerk of the supreme court:

(For appeals from child in need of assistance proceedings) a. The child in need of assistance court file, including all exhibits. b. Any transcript of a child in need of assistance hearing from which an appeal has been taken.

(For appeals from termination proceedings) a. The termination of parental rights court file, including all exhibits. b. Those portions of the child in need of assistance court file, either received as exhibits or judicially noticed in the termination proceedings.

c. The transcript of the termination hearing.

(For appeals from post-termination proceedings) a. The order, judgment, or decree terminating parental rights. b. The post-termination order from which the appeal was taken. c. Any motion(s), resistance(s), or transcript(s) related to the post-termination order from which the appeal was taken.

The undersigned requests that the appellate court issue an opinion reversing the order of the juvenile court in this matter, or, in the alternative, enter an order setting this case for full briefing.

Attorney for appellant. Name, address, telephone.

ATTACHMENTS: (For appeals from child in need of assistance proceedings): (1) a copy of the order or judgment from which the appeal has been taken; and (2) a copy of any rulings on a motion for new trial as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.1007 or a motion as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.904(2).

(For appeals from termination orders): (1) a copy of the petition (and any amendments) for termination of parental rights filed in the juvenile court proceedings; (2) a copy of the order, judgment, or decree terminating parental rights or dismissing the termination petition; and (3) a copy of any rulings on a motion for new trial as provided in Iowa R. Civ, P, 1.1007 or a motion as provided in Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.904(2). www.ncsconline.org + 65 (For appeals from post-termination orders): (1) a copy of the order, judgment, or decree terminating parental rights; (2) a copy of the post-termination order from which the appeal was taken; and (3) any motion(s) or resistance(s) related to the post-termination order From which the appeal was taken.

PROOF OF SERVICE AND CERTIFICATE OF FILING

I certify that on the day of , 20 , I served this document by ( mailing) ( personally delivering) a copy to the clerk of the district court and to all parties or attorneys whose names and addresses are shown below.

1 further certify that on the day of > 20 , I filed this Petition on Appeal by ( mailing) ( personally delivering) eighteen copies of it to the Clerk of the Iowa Supreme Court, Iowa Judicial Branch Building, 11 11 East Court Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 503 19.

Signature of person filing and serving petition. Name, address, telephone.

Persons served:

66 Expediting Dependency Appeals Rule 6.751-Form 5: Response to Petition on Appeal (Cross-Appeal).

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA IN THE MTEREST OF Supreme Court No. Juvenile Court No.

RESPONSE TO PETITION , CHILD(REN) ON APPEAL (CROSS-APPEAL)

1. This Response to the Petition on Appeal is filed on behalf of , the mother/father/child/State/Intervenor/other , in the above-identified proceeding.

2. The appellee’s attorney, , k/is not the attorney who represented appellee at trial.

3. The relevant date(s) regarding this appeal: 0are correctly stated in the Petition on Appeal. 0are corrected by appellee as follows:

4. The statement of material facts as they relate to the issues presented for appeal is: 0accurate as set forth by appellant and accepted by the undersigned appellee; OR 0requires additions/corrections, as follows:

5 Appellee’s response to the legal issues presented for appeal are as follows: a. Issue I:

Appellee states that: 0error was preserved as alleged in the Petition on Appeal. u error was not preserved. If so, please explain briefly: Legal authority for Issue 1 supporting appellee’s response:

b. Issue 11:

www.ncsconline.org Appellee states that: 0error was preserved as alleged in the Petition on Appeal. 0error was not preserved. If so, please explain briefly:

~~ Legal authority for Issue I1 supporting appellee’s response:

6. The undersigned requests the appellate court issue an opinion affirming the order of the juvenile court in this matter.

Attorney for appellee. Name, address, telephone.

PROOF OF SERVICE AND CERTIFICATE OF FILING

I certify that on th- day of Y 20 , I served this document by ( mailing) (- personally delivering) a copy to the clerk of the district court and to all parties or attorneys whose names and addresses are shown below.

I further certify that on the day of 9 20 , I filed this Petition on Appeal by ( mailing) ( personally delivering) eighteen copies of it to the Clerk of the Iowa Supreme Court, Iowa Judicial Branch Building, 11 1 1 East Court Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 503 19.

Signature of person filing and serving petition. Name, address, telephone.

Persons served:

68 + Expediting Dependency Appeals Rule 6.751-Form 6: Counsel's Certification of Diligent Search.

IN THE INTEREST OF Juvenile No.

COUNSEL'S CERTIFICATION , CHTLD(REN) OF DILIGENT SEARCH

1. 1, , was counsel for ( ) in the above-captioned case.

2. Since the time of filing of the order for (briefly describe)

I have attempted to ascertain the whereabouts of my client: a) to discuss the merits of an appeal. 0 b) to retain hidher signature on the Notice of Appeal.

3. I have made the following efforts:

Sent a letter with proper postage affixed to the last-known address of my client and: received no response. The letter has been returned to me. Ascertained through the main post office in that my client has not filed a forwarding address. Telephoned my client with no response. Checked with the telephone company, and there is no new telephone listing on file for my client. Undertaken the following additional inquiry into the whereabouts of my client:

4. I am unable to determine the whereabouts of my client.

I hereby certify that the above-stated facts are true and correct.

Dated this day of 9 20

Signature. Name, address, telephone.

Counsel for www.ncsconline.org 69 , ..,