Martin v. Arkansas Department of Health & Human Services

I must confess to having some sympathy for the attorney, Val Price, in this case. Effective July 1, 2006, this court amended Supreme Court Rule 6-9 to shorten the time frame for filing a notice of appeal from thirty days, which is the standard time frame for filing the notice, to fourteen days. Sup. Ct. R. 6-9(b)(2). The obvious intent of this court was to expedite these appeals involving termination-of-parental-rights cases.

At the same time we shortened the time frame for filing a notice of appeal, we added a non-standard requirement for filing notices of appeal in these cases. We required,…