Opinion ID: 1314674
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: procedural delay

Text: Before addressing the merits of this case, we examine the long and tortured procedural history this matter has endured. The petition to terminate parental rights in this case was filed on March 27, 1987. The first hearing on the matter was held on April 23, 1987, wherein an improvement period was granted; another hearing was held on November 10, 1987, wherein the improvement period was extended six months and psychological reports were ordered updated; additional hearings were held on July 26, 1988, and August 1, 1988, and parental rights were finally terminated on January 30, 1989. Due to problems in acquiring a transcript, the final appealable order was re-entered almost a year later on January 24, 1990. Thus, even prior to the appeal to this Court, Carlita remained in limbo for almost three years during the most formative stages of her young life. Although Carlita's brother Christopher's case is not presently before the Court, its procedural progression is even more egregious. He was removed from the home as an infant in 1984 based upon the appellant's abuse of his brother Justin. It took until November 20, 1987, for the lower court to determine that he should be reintegrated into the home. The last visit between Christopher and his parents occurred in March 1989, and no requests for visitation were received after that time. Christopher has resided with his present foster family from March 1987 to the present. A hearing on Christopher's disposition has been scheduled for August 16, 1991. This child has now been in foster care for almost seven years with no real resolution of his future. Such protracted procedural histories are far too common a phenomenon in child abuse and neglect cases, as well as other child custody matters. Several cases with which we have dealt have involved similar extended periods of time without any real resolution for the child. In our recent opinion in In the Matter of Scottie D., ___ W.Va. ___, 406 S.E.2d 214 (1991), the original allegation of abuse and neglect was filed on February 11, 1985. Following proceedings in the matter, an order was entered on March 17, 1989, concluding that the appellee had not abused his children. Thus, the final order, from which appeal was taken, was not entered until over four years after the neglect proceeding was initiated. In Department of Human Services v. La Rea Ann C.L., 175 W.Va. 330, 332 S.E.2d 632 (1985), a child born in 1980 was voluntarily relinquished by her mother shortly after birth and resided in foster care for four years pending final resolution of a subsequent attempt to revoke the relinquishment of parental rights. We recognized in La Rea Ann, that [c]hild custody cases certainly should be decided promptly. Regardless of who is responsible for the delay in this case, the child is the unfortunate victim. Id. 332 S.E.2d at 638 n. 8. In State v. Scritchfield, 167 W.Va. 683, 280 S.E.2d 315 (1981), the Department of Welfare had petitioned to remove three children from the custody of their mother in June 1976. The two older children were returned in 1977, but the youngest child remained in foster care in the temporary custody of the Department of Welfare. 280 S.E.2d at 318. On September 1, 1978, the Department of Welfare sought to have the youngest child declared a neglected child, citing the medical condition of the mother and the fact that the child had been in foster care since 1976. Id. at 317. On June 6, 1979, the court finally entered an order finding the child to be neglected and terminating the parental rights of the parents. Id. at 319. Again, we find an approximate three-year period in which the child's disposition remained unresolved. Certainly many delays are occasioned by the fact that troubled human relationships and aggravated parenting problems are not remedied overnight. The law properly recognizes that rights of natural parents enjoy a great deal of protection and that one of the primary goals of the social services network and the courts is to give aid to parents and children in an effort to reunite them. The bulk of the most aggravated procedural delays, however, are occasioned less by the complexities of mending broken people and relationships than by the tendency of these types of cases to fall through the cracks in the system. The long procedural delays in this and most other abuse and neglect cases considered by this Court in the last decade indicate that neither the lawyers nor the courts are doing an adequate job of assuring that childrenthe most voiceless segment of our societyaren't left to languish in a limbo-like state during a time most crucial to their human development. As explained in J. Goldstein, A. Freud & J. Solnit, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child 32-33 (1973), Continuity of relationships, surroundings and environmental influence are essential for a child's normal development. Since they do not play the same role in later life, their importance is often underrated by the adult world. Physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and moral growth does not happen without causing the child inevitable internal difficulties. The instability of all mental processes during the period of development needs to be offset by stability and uninterrupted support from external sources. Smooth growth is arrested or disrupted when upheavals and changes in the external world are added to the internal ones. [12] This is especially true during the first three years of life. Burton L. White, Ph.D., in his book, The First Three Years of Life (1985), begins his preface as follows: After seventeen years of research on how human beings acquire their abilities, I have become convinced that it is to the first three years of life that we should now turn most of our attention. My own studies, as well as the work of many others, have clearly indicated that the experiences of those first years are far more important than we had previously thought. In their simple everyday activities, infants and toddlers form the foundations of all later development. Id. at v. In the first chapter of her book, The Critical Years: A Guide for Dedicated Parents (1984), Doris E. Durrell, Ph.D., explains the following: Throughout my years of experience in raising children and treating children in a clinical setting, I have been continually impressed with the degree to which personality has been formed by the time a child is three years old. By this time, certain positive behaviors will have been established which will continue to bring your child positive responses, or negative behaviors may be established which will cause your child problems with peers and adults. Id. at 9. Child abuse and neglect cases must be recognized as being among the highest priority for the courts' attention. Unjustified procedural delays wreak havoc on a child's development, stability and security. Consequently, in order to assure that all entities are actively pursuing the goals of the child abuse and neglect statutes, the Administrative Director of this Court is hereby directed to work with the clerks of the circuit court to develop systems to monitor the status and progress of child neglect and abuse cases in the courts. Whether a simple tickler file system or an enhancement to a computerized case monitoring system, some means of systematic review of child neglect and abuse cases must be established. Otherwise, the statutory time frames that govern their processing and the mandatory, periodic status reports that must be filed with the court are too easily overlooked. If such safeguards are rendered meaningless by a failure or inability to monitor cases, neglected and abused children may become lost in the very system designed to rescue them.