State v. APRIL O.

¶ 1. April O. and Steven P. appeal orders terminating their parental rights. They argue the circuit court lost competency to proceed when it failed to hold their initial and dispositional hearings within mandatory time limits. WISCONSIN Stat. § 48.315(2) allowed the court to extend those time limits, but only upon a showing of good cause in open court. 2 The issue is whether the court lost competency when, although it found that good cause existed to extend the time limits, it did not make that finding until after the limits had expired. We hold that the court did lose its competency to…