In re M.H.

The State filed a juvenile court petition seeking an adjudication that Appellant had abused and neglected his three children. Near the end of the sixty-day statutory deadline for a hearing on the State’s petition, all parties stipulated to waiver of the deadline and to an extension of the trial date to allow Appellant additional time for expert discovery and trial preparation. Despite the parties’ prior stipulation to waive the sixty-day statutory deadline for a hearing, the juvenile court denied Appellant’s formal request for additional time on the ground that the governing statute required a final adjudication hearing within sixty days of the filing of the petition. The juvenile court subsequently entered an order adjudicating Appellant’s children abused and neglected and prohibited any further contact between Appellant and his children. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) because the parties had jointly stipulated for an extension of the sixty-day statutory deadline, Appellant’s request for additional time should not have been denied; and (2) instead, the juvenile court should have exercised its discretion to decide whether further discovery was justified under the circumstances of this case. View "In re M.H." on Justia Law