Opinion ID: 1378820
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Whether the district court established jurisdictional and dispositional grounds by clear and convincing evidence to justify termination

Text: As grounds for termination of parental rights the district court found by clear and convincing evidence that the parents' conduct demonstrated abandonment and failure of parental adjustment. NRS 128.012 defines abandonment of a child as any parental conduct which evinces a settled purpose on the part of one or both parents to forego all parental custody and relinquish all claims to the child. Failure of parental adjustment occurs when a parent or parents are unable or unwilling within a reasonable time to correct substantially the circumstances, conduct or conditions which led to the placement of their child outside of their home, notwithstanding reasonable and appropriate efforts made by the state or a private person or agency to return the child to his home. NRS 128.0126. A termination of parental rights requires a finding of parental unsuitability (jurisdictional grounds) and that severing the parental ties would be in the child's best interest (dispositional grounds). Champagne v. Welfare Division, 100 Nev. 640, 647, 691 P.2d 849, 854 (1984). NRS 128.105 [5] enumerates the grounds for terminating parental rights. The legislature has amended the statute by adding language which requires the court to consider primarily whether the best interests of the child would be served by the termination. While Champagne elevated the standard of proof to at least clear and convincing evidence for establishing both jurisdictional and dispositional grounds, we have, nevertheless, approvingly followed several pre- Champagne cases for defining parental abandonment. Id. at 648, 691 P.2d at 854.