Crenshaw v. Dunlap

Opinion

THOMPSON, J.

These appeals by a child and a foster parent from an order denying a petition to declare a child free from parental custody and control raise the issue of apparent first impression 1 of the extent of the child’s constitutional and statutory right to independent counsel in the proceeding. It concerns, also, issues of: (1) the authority of a commissioner to hear the matter in the absence of a stipulation on behalf of the child; (2) the sufficiency of evidence to support a trial court conclusion that the child was not abandoned by her natural mother within the meaning of Civil…