Mary Price v. Indiana Department of Child Services Director of Indiana Department of Child Services

On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A05-1602-PL-380

Slaughter, Justice.

Judicial mandate is an extraordinary remedy—available only when the law imposes a clear duty upon a defendant to perform a specific, ministerial act and the plaintiff is clearly entitled to that relief. The law at issue here, Indiana Code section 31-25-2-5, imposes strict caseload limits for family case managers at the Indiana Department of Child Services. This statute compels a particular outcome—no case manager can oversee more than seventeen children at a time who are receiving services—but…