Appeal won by birthparents - anyone?

Hi All, We are in appeals and have been since May. We are coming up on 3 years that our fs has been in care and I so want this to be over with. My questions is this - has anyone ever had a situation in which the birthparents won the appeal? I guess I'm just getting nervous that after all this time something could happen in which we would have to go through the process all over again and further prevent permanancy. Thanks in advance for your input.

No advice, just wanted to send good vibes your way!

Appeals since May??? Wow! Here they get 45 days. From what I've been told, they can appeal that they system failed them, but not the actual tpr. Can you give more details

I'm a teacher, not an attorney. Here is how the appeals process was explained to me. There is a timeline to file the appeal. If the appeal is filed inside of this timeframe, the court has the option to hear it or not. The appeal is NOT generally a re-opening of the case. It is a time for the court to look for any violation of rights of the parents or other problems with the way in which the case was tried and to safeguard the right of the parent to have had ample opportunity to get their kids back. Unless there has been some egregious error on the part of the attorneys, the state, or the court, the appeals are not usually heard. Having said that, there are times when appeals do go before the court. And there are times when parents have had them overturned. You can google it and find case law--usually wrightslaw has good info on any case that might pertain to you. I wish I could give you more encouragement, but as we all know, this is a no guarantees kind of lifestyle. We have several attorneys who are members here. I'm hoping they'll respond and give you a better understanding that what I've done. Good luck--and may the kids get the outcome they deserve.

All is know is what they taught us in fost/adopt class. It is very common for birth parents to file an appeal, but very uncommon for them to win. If I remember correctly, they said "way less than 1%" of appeals are successful. In the vast majority of cases, appeals just delay the adoption, not prevent it.

See if your state publishes the results of the appeals. If they do, read through them. The ones in my state are listed in a weekly newsletter to lawyers. I was able to search through at least the lat 5 years of cases. In 5 years of appeals in my state, only one TPR was overturned and sent back to the lower court to be reheard. The reason the TPR was overturned was because the judge hearing the TPR case didn't wait for the mom to arrive in court. Normally, this wouldn't be cause for an overturn, but in this case, the mom was being transported from prison and it was out of her control completely. The judge should have waited for her. She won the appeal and the case was sent back to Domestic and Juvenile Court and retried. Since it went back to a sealed court, I don't know if she won that hearing.Edited to add that you might want to Google on your state name and "TPR Appeal" to find if there is anything published.

I have never heard of an appeal overturning a TPR on foster care. I am aware of one appeal in my state where TPR was overturned on a private domestic adoption. I have also heard of a couple of cases where the case was sent back to trial level for further findings of fact (but not overturned). Those were cases where the trial court did not consider the need in maintain the sibling bond in determining the best interests of the child at any point in the proceedings.

Im not trying to scare you, but im in New Jersey and there has been a trend going on here this last year of TPR's that get appealed...I would prepare yourself for the worst, and hope for the best- because its better to be prepare incase it happens...i'll be praying for you, im not sure how much information they have given you about the case. To you does it seem like the parents have been given every opportunity to succeed?

Nevada Jen -- I think this is exactly what they are doing now. There is some question and it's being sent back down to the lower court to verify. Still kind of scary, especially because of the length of time.

helpfula, They had 2 1/2 years to work the case plan and they didn't complete anything and despite the promises in court 6 months ago they are in the same situation. They have been offered countless services and everything imaginable (from what I hear and see), but like everyone says you just never know. I don't see it happening, but again you just never know. Thanks!

Well, there hasn't been a case overturned on appeal in my county in more than 35 years, if that gives you a sense of the odds!Cases can only be overturned on appeal if the court or DSS makes a serious error. If DSS hasn't made "reasonable efforts" to reunify, for example, or if the bparents didn't get an attorney. Even if the bparents were to turn into saints after TPR, that would make no difference----the court of appeals is only looking for procedural violations.Your case has dragged on so long that you'd think that SURELY the court has met the burden of proof for terminating parental rights. And even if there was a procedural error, it doesn't mean the kids go back---it just means the case has to be re-heard in the original court. The appeal is a huge hassle, but I wouldn't spend any emotion worrying about it. (Not that you can help worrying, of course, but maybe worry about it like you worry about being struck by lightening. It's about the same odds).

My girl's birth (maternal) grandma was expected to appeal the last denial she received to adopt the girls. Honestly, the judge denied it, but then told her she should appeal. Thankfully, she didn't. However, she only had 30 days (weekends included) after the paperwork was filed with the courts. I highly doubt they would win an appeal.

As long as the services were offered, and parents did not comply; I think your safe. What has been happeneing here is that in appeals parents are arguing that either they werent given enough services, or the services that they were offered were not appropriate.

We, unfortunately, are in this situation. TPR was granted in Feb last year, both bios appealed within the 30 day window but the cases weren't actually argued until early this month. They 'won' however it didn't reverse the TPR as the county attorney and GAL counter-appealed to the state supreme court. So nothing has changed, there is still an order of 'no contact' in place, but there's no permanency for this child. She's been in care for 2 yrs now (nearly her entire life) due to a severe abuse incident that resulted in serious disabilities. Sadly I'm afraid this is becoming more of a political statement (ICWA) and less about the actual outcome for the child.

my rights violated by dcs need help in appels to superior courts circut