Court Opinion

ID: 9587155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:18:26.954056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:03.441264
License: Public Domain

WARREN, J.,
specially concurring.
I agree with the majority that the right to appointed counsel provided in ORS 419.525(2) implies the right to effective assistance of counsel. I am not as sure as the majority that the issue of adequacy of counsel cannot be raised on direct appeal in a proper case. However, even if the issue of adequacy of counsel can be raised on direct appeal, the error must be preserved in the trial court before we can review it. That was not done here. I would hold that the error was not properly preserved and that, therefore, we cannot reach it.
The majority notes that in the trial court no record on the adequacy of counsel issue was made. I do not believe that an inadequately developed record below makes a question unreviewable on direct appeal; it merely makes review unlikely to reveal error. I agree with the majority that, on the record we have, inadequacy of counsel has not been shown.
Judge Rossman’s special concurrences adequately address the difficulties involved both in preserving error and in perfecting a record for direct appeal. Because no satisfactory procedure exists for review of adequacy of counsel claims in termination cases, the matter should be addressed by the legislature.