Opinion ID: 852888
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Assistance of Counsel in Termination Proceeding.

Text: As the Supreme Court has explained, the U.S. Constitution does not require the appointment of counsel in every parental termination proceeding. The constitutional assurance of due process calls for counsel where the trial court's assessment of such factors as the complexity of the proceeding and the capacity of the uncounseled parent indicates an appointment is necessary. Lassiter v. Dep't of Social Services, 452 U.S. 18, 27-32, 101 S.Ct. 2153, 68 L.Ed.2d 640 (1981). Rather than incur the time and money to litigate eligibility for public counsel in each case, Indiana has chosen to provide counsel in termination proceedings to all parents who are indigent. Ind.Code Ann. §§ 31-32-4-1 and 31-32-2-5 (West 1998). [1] The Code does not provide for appointment of counsel to seek post-judgment or collateral relief. Our Court of Appeals has said that the statutory right to counsel in termination cases carries the right to performance by counsel measured by the same test applicable to indigent defense in criminal cases. J.T. v. Marion County OFC, 740 N.E.2d 1261, 1265 (Ind.Ct.App.2000). [2] A substantial number of other jurisdictions have so held. [3] We conclude that transporting the structure of the criminal law, featuring as it does the opportunity for repeated re-examination of the original court judgment through ineffectiveness claims and post-conviction processes, has the potential for doing serious harm to children whose lives have by definition already been very difficult. For one thing, experience in the criminal law with the present system of direct appeals, post-conviction proceedings, and habeas petitions demonstrates that with rare exception counsel perform capably and thus ensure accurate decisions. The correctness of such decisions is at the heart of the assurance that parties in termination cases will receive due process. Lassiter, 452 U.S. at 27, 101 S.Ct. 2153. Second, criminal prosecutions and termination proceedings are substantially different in focus. The resolution of a civil juvenile proceeding focuses on the best interests of the child, not on guilt or innocence as in a criminal proceeding. As the Supreme Court said when it held that the writ of habeas corpus was not available for collateral attacks on state termination decisions, the parent simply seeks to relitigate, through federal habeas, not any liberty interest of her sons, but the interest in her own parental rights. Lehman v. Lycoming County Children's Servs. Agency, 458 U.S. 502, 511, 102 S.Ct. 3231, 73 L.Ed.2d 928 (1982). Third, serial relitigation in criminal cases imposes a substantial burden on victims and witnesses, typically adults. We justify imposing this burden on them by saying that the complete deprivation of personal liberty represented by incarceration demands a thorough search for the innocent. In the context of termination cases, extended litigation imposes that burden on the most vulnerable people whom the system and such cases seek to protect: the children. As Justice Powell wrote, There is little that can be as detrimental to a child's sound development as uncertainty over whether he is to remain in his current `home,' under the care of his parents or foster parents, especially when such uncertainty is prolonged. Lehman, 458 U.S. at 513-14, 102 S.Ct. 3231. Justice Joette Katz made a similar observation when Connecticut's high court decided not to permit state habeas as a vehicle for collateral attacks on judgments of termination: [T]here exists, as the trial court noted in this case, a `frightening possibility that a habeas petition will negate the permanent placement of a child whose status had presumably been in limbo for several years.' Consequently, the state's interest as paren patriae militates against allowing the writ. In re Jonathan M., 255 Conn. 208, 764 A.2d 739, 753 (2001) (footnote omitted). To permit the children to travel from one home to another while termination proceedings span across the years is incongruous and contrary to the federal and state policy of minimizing the `foster care drift' that has doomed millions of children to interim, multiple or otherwise impermanent placement. In re Adoption of A.M.B., 812 A.2d 659, 667 (Pa.Super.Ct.2002). Due to the immeasurable damage a child may suffer amidst the uncertainty that comes with such collateral attacks, it is in the child's best interest and overall well being to limit the potential for years of litigation and instability. It is undisputed that children require secure, stable, long-term, continuous relationships with their parents or foster parents. There is little that can be as detrimental to a child's sound development as uncertainty. Lehman, 458 U.S. at 513, 102 S.Ct. 3231. The current system has already been criticized for putting children in limbo too long. This problem was sufficiently serious that Congress has legislated to curb foster care drift  the recurring travel of children from one place to another promoting instability and unhinged relationships. During the 1970's, nationwide concern grew regarding the large number of children who remained out of the homes of their biological parents throughout their childhood, frequently moved from one foster care situation to another, thereby reaching majority without belonging to a permanent family. This phenomenon became known as `foster care drift' and resulted in the enactment by Congress of Public Law 96-272, the `Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980,' codified at 42 U.S.C. §§ 610-679 (1988). One of the important (sic) purposes of this law was to eliminate foster care drift by requiring states to adopt statutes to facilitate permanent placement for children as a condition to receiving federal funding for their foster care and adoption assistance programs. In re Adoption/ Guardianship of Nos. J9610436 and J9711031, 368 Md. 666, 796 A.2d 778, 783-84 (2002). [4] Among other things, the federal act requires the state to provide a written case plan for each child for whom the state claims federal foster care maintenance payments. 42 U.S.C. § 671(a)(16). [5] The court then has an essential responsibility to supervise an appropriate permanency plan intended to thwart foster care drift. Fourth, the odds of an accurate determination in a termination case are enhanced by the fact of judicial involvement that is much more intensive than it is the usual criminal case. As Judge Tamila noted for the Superior Court of Pennsylvania: [B]ecause of the doctrine of Parens Patriae and the need to focus on the best interest of the child, the trial judge, who is the fact finder, is required to be an attentive and involved participant in the process. While he must depend upon the litigants to present the evidence to establish the particular elements or defenses in the termination case, he is not limited to their presentations, and as in any custody case, he may require more than they present and direct further investigation, evaluations or expert testimony to assure him that the interests of the child and the respective parties are properly represented. Under the aegis of the court, the role of the lawyer, while important, does not carry the deleterious impact of ineffectiveness that may occur in criminal proceedings. In re Adoption of T.M.F., 392 Pa.Super. 598, 573 A.2d 1035, 1042-43 (1990). American public policy holds that children are likely raised best by their parents. Parental termination is a last resort. Parents have numerous opportunities to rectify their situations before the parental termination hearing. A termination hearing results only when attempts to rectify the conditions that led to removal from the parents have failed over a prolonged period. Where parents whose rights were terminated upon trial claim on appeal that their lawyer underperformed, we deem the focus of the inquiry to be whether it appears that the parents received a fundamentally fair trial whose facts demonstrate an accurate determination. The question is not whether the lawyer might have objected to this or that, but whether the lawyer's overall performance was so defective that the appellate court cannot say with confidence that the conditions leading to the removal of the children from parental care are unlikely to be remedied and that termination is in the child's best interest. [6]