Court Opinion

ID: 9819526
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:27:01.780683+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:31.056622
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COOK, specially concurring: I agree the language used in the State’s petition was sufficient to provide notice to respondent that the State sought to permanently terminate her parental rights. I disagree the notice provision of section 2 — 13(4), requiring that the prayer for relief “clearly and obviously state that the parents could permanently lose their rights as a parent” (705 ILCS 405/2 — 13(4) (West 2002)), applies only to original petitions seeking to terminate parental rights, not to after-filed petitions. Such a holding is not required by the language of the Juvenile Court Act and serves only to further complicate an area of the law which is already difficult. Even without section 2 — 13(4), every petition for termination of parental rights should make it clear whether the parents could permanently lose their parental rights.