J.B., Etc. v. Florida Department of Children and Families

170 So. 3d 780, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 416, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 1473, 2015 WL 4112321
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJuly 9, 2015
DocketSC14-1990
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 170 So. 3d 780 (J.B., Etc. v. Florida Department of Children and Families) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J.B., Etc. v. Florida Department of Children and Families, 170 So. 3d 780, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 416, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 1473, 2015 WL 4112321 (Fla. 2015).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

In this case, which involves J.B.’s challenge to an order terminating her parental rights, we consider two questions of great public importance concerning an indigent parent’s right to counsel in termination proceedings. The First District Court of Appeal in J.B. v. Department of Children & Families, 158 So.3d 653, 659 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014), certified the following questions of great public importance:

[785]*785I. IS THE CRIMINAL STANDARD' OF INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL ANNOUNCED IN STRICKLAND V. WASHINGTON [, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) ], APPLICABLE TO CLAIMS OF INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL IN PROCEEDINGS INVOLVING THE TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS?
II. IS ANY PROCEDURE AVAILABLE FOLLOWING THE TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS TO RAISE CLAIMS OF INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL THAT ARE NOT APPARENT ON THE FACE OF THE RECORD?

We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.; see also J.B. v. Dep’t of Child. & Fam., 160 So.3d 895 (Fla.2014) (granting review). We answer question I in the negative and question II in the affirmative.

Although we have previously held that indigent parents have a constitutional right to counsel in proceedings to terminate parental rights (TPR), we have not expressly recognized an attendant right to the effective assistance of counsel. For the reasons we explain here, we hold that the right to counsel in termination of parental right (TPR) proceedings includes the right to effective assistance and requires a means of vindicating that right. Accordingly, in response to the first certified question, we establish the appropriate standard for determining whether counsel provided constitutionally ineffective assistance in termination of parental rights proceedings. And regarding the second question, we provide here a temporary process for bringing such claims of ineffective assistance, and we direct the development of rules providing the procedure for vindicating that right. In this specific case, however, we conclude that J.B. has failed to present any basis for setting aside the order terminating her parental rights and thus we approve the district court’s decision. .

I. BACKGROUND

Petitioner J.B. (Mother) was seventeen when the child D.L. was born in 2009. In January 2011, the Department of Children and Families (DCF or Department) investigated allegations of child abuse as to D.L.

On March 14, 2011, the Department of Children and Families removed the child, D.L., from the mother’s custody based on allegations the mother was abusing illegal drugs, had been living in a “crack house” followed by a homeless shelter, and was currently in jail for violating her probation. On April 1, 2011, the Department filed a dependency petition alleging the mother violated a safety plan, was unstable, allowed the child to frequent unsafe locations, and left the child with strangers at the homeless shelter. On June 22, 2011, the trial court adjudicated the child dependent based on the mother’s consent. On July 13, 2011, the trial court accepted a case plan with the goal of reunification.
On February 10, 2012, the Department filed a petition for termination of parental rights. The petition alleged the mother abandoned the child by failing to provide for him financially or emotionally and failing to exercise her parental duties and responsibilities. The petition further alleged the mother failed to substantially comply with the case plan within a nine-month time period in that she failed to complete an inpatient drug treatment program, complete a parenting course, follow all recommendations of a parenting evaluation, follow all recommendations of a psychi[786]*786atric evaluation, undergo random urinalysis and a hair follicle test, participate in a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) program, maintain stable housing, maintain verifiable income, and maintain contact with the dependency case manager.

J.B., 158 So.3d at 654-55.

In June 2013, the Department filed a “Verified Petition for Termination of Parental Rights and Permanent Commitment for Purposes of Subsequent Adoption.” The petition contained allegations that the termination of parental rights was in the manifest best interests of the child; that the mother and unknown father had neglected, abused or abandoned D.L.; that D.L. was in the stable home of a foster parent who cared for D.L. for two years and would like to adopt him; that the Mother had been represented by counsel since the child was placed in the Department’s care; and that D.L. would not be harmed by the termination of parental rights.

The day before the adjudicatory hearing on the petition, the mother’s counsel filed a motion for continuance on the ground that the father of D.L. had not yet been identified through DNA testing. At the hearing on July 19, 2013, the judge heard argument on the motion and denied it as untimely, not “proper in form,” and insufficient to establish “good cause sufficient to override the statutory mandates regarding the child’s right to permanency.” 158 So.3d at 655. The following exchange ensued:

THE COURT: Do you want opening statements?
[MOTHER’S COUNSEL]: No, Your Honor. I’m not prepared to go forward in that case. I was under the impression that things would have been different, but something changed.
THE COURT: Well, regardless, we have been scheduled for this trial for quite a while. And the Court knows that you’re a competent attorney. Let’s go forward. If at some point, [counsel], after all this time to prepare for this trial, there’s a particular additional thing or person that you think you need to have put in evidence or call as a witness, you can go ahead and identify that for the record. The Court notes you didn’t file your — or send in your motion for continuance until — it’s signed on July 18th. Today is July 19th. The Court is confident that as experienced and competent an attorney as you are, that you would have been ready to go forward and would have filed a motion for continuance a lot sooner if there were any particular inability on your part to be effective.

Id. The mother’s counsel then explained that he filed the motion for continuance only after consulting with DCF counsel, but that DCF apparently had changed its position since then.

Counsel for DCF gave her opening argument, and the court then asked J.B.’s counsel again if he wanted to make a statement. He responded affirmatively.

After stating that he was “really exhausted” and that “the last.few weeks ha[d] worn [him] down,” the mother’s counsel asserted in his opening statement that the mother had complied with most of her case plan and any failures by the mother were attributable to the Department, which failed to prepare the mother for life as an adult when the mother herself was a foster child in the Department’s custody.

Id.

The Department presented a number of witnesses in support of its petition. A child protective investigator, Ashley Bird-shaw, testified regarding the investigation of the initial abuse report and the determi[787]*787nation that J.B. did not have stable housing and had lived in a crack house for a time.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
170 So. 3d 780, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 416, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 1473, 2015 WL 4112321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jb-etc-v-florida-department-of-children-and-families-fla-2015.