Court Opinion

ID: 9411287
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-26 15:04:55.526598+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:06.087841
License: Public Domain

Third District Court of Appeal
                               State of Florida

                          Opinion filed July 26, 2023.
       Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

                            ________________

                             No. 3D22-1996
                        Lower Tribunal No. 19-64-K
                           ________________

                            C.H., The Father,
                                  Appellant,

                                     vs.

           Department of Children and Families, et al.,
                                 Appellees.

     An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Monroe County, Bonnie J. Helms,
Judge.

      Law Office of Richard F. Joyce, P.A., and Richard F. Joyce, for
appellant.

      Sara Elizabeth Goldfarb and Amanda Victoria Glass (Tallahassee), for
appellee Guardian ad Litem; Karla Perkins, for appellee Department of
Children and Families.

Before MILLER, GORDO and BOKOR, JJ.

     PER CURIAM.
      Affirmed. See J.B. v. Dep't of Child. & Fams., 158 So. 3d 653, 657

(Fla. 1st DCA 2014) (explaining that “a claim of ineffective assistance of

counsel cannot be raised for the first time on appeal unless counsel's

ineffectiveness is apparent on the face of the record”), aff’d, 170 So. 3d 780,

792 (Fla. 2015) (establishing that no ineffective assistance claim lies unless

the “representation so prejudiced the outcome of the TPR proceeding that

but for counsel's deficient representation the [Father’s] rights would not have

been terminated”); Hunter v. State, 817 So. 2d 786, 791 (Fla. 2002) (“[T]o

establish an ineffectiveness claim premised on an alleged conflict of interest

the defendant must ‘establish that an actual conflict of interest adversely

affected his lawyer's performance.’”) (citation omitted); see also S.M.O. v.

Dep't of Child. & Fams., 357 So. 3d 773, 777–78 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023)

(explaining that “[w]e review the trial court's findings under the highly

deferential competent substantial evidence standard of review” and noting

that section 39.806(1)(f), Florida Statutes, “permits termination of parental

rights to siblings, even if there is no nexus between the egregious conduct

and the potential harm to the siblings”).

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