A southern Indiana trial court that has been repeatedly advised by the Indiana Supreme Court that magistrate judges may not sign the court’s findings and conclusions was told again by the Indiana Court of Appeals on Wednesday in a CHINS case to stop the practice.
Public defenders from across the state came to the Indiana Statehouse Thursday to share their concerns about what they see as crisis in the state’s judiciary – the increasing difficulty their offices face to comply with caseload suggestions as more and more filings hit their desks.
Although a Tippecanoe County father appealed the denial of a petition alleging his children were children in need of services, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled the father’s arguments as to why his children should be considered CHINS were unavailing.
Three Miami County children will not be returned to their previous foster parents after the Indiana Court of Appeals found Friday the trial court correctly determined the foster mother had become obsessed with the notion that the children were molested, making continued placement with her not in the children’s best interests.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed the termination of a mother’s parental rights to her daughter after finding the mother failed to prove the trial court erred in the calculation of the time the child had been removed from her parents’ home.
A federal judge ruled against a Department of Child Services case manager who illegally searched an Indianapolis veterinarian’s apartment after receiving a report of suspected child abuse or neglect. The case manager now must face a damages trial in the vet’s civil suit against her.
The Indiana Department of Child Services failed to present any evidence that a newborn’s mother did not have stable housing or that her actions seriously endangered her child, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in reversing a child in need of services adjudication.
An Indiana trial court imposed an “inappropriately high” burden on the Department of Child Services to prove a presumption of a child in need of services situation, the Indiana Court of Appeals held Friday in an opinion ordering the trial court to revisit the CHINS petition.
Navigating the local court system is just one more traumatic experience for children who have been abused or neglected. But Tippecanoe County advocates believe a therapy dog to pat or scratch could ease their stress and lighten their moods.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed a Vanderburgh County children in need of services order after finding the children’s custodian did not make any argument as to why his stipulation to the facts of the CHINS petition should be withdrawn for cause.
A divided Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed a CHINS determination after finding the Department of Child Services failed to meet its burden of proof, though one judge believed the trial court was acting in the child’s best interests.
A troubled teenager found to be a child in need of services was properly adjudicated even though the juvenile court ruled the state did not meet its burden in proving the basis of its CHINS petition.
A trial court erred in declaring a boy in the custody of his father to be a child in need of services on account of his meth-abusing mother, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has allowed a Huntington County father to retain his parental rights to his son but terminated the mother’s parental rights after finding that she has not remedied the circumstances that led to her son’s removal from her home.
The Indiana Supreme Court reversed a children in need of services determination Tuesday after agreeing to hear the parents’ case on the merits, despite their premature notices of appeal.
A statute providing exceptions to the requirement that the Department of Child Services make reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify families involved in CHINS cases survived a constitutional challenge Thursday.
As Indiana continues to experience heightened levels of CHINS and termination of parental rights cases, several interesting cases arose in 2016 related to these topics.
A sharp increase in the number of case filings involving children in need of services comes as the number of juvenile delinquencies across Indiana is decreasing, which Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush attributes to the state court system’s focus on increasing resources to juvenile courts and assigning appropriate punishments to juvenile offenders.
A southern Indiana church van driver who suspected children to be in need of services due to dangerous living conditions in his small community followed the law requiring him to report his suspicions. He didn’t want to provide his name, but he did so after a Department of Child Services hotline worker assured him his identity would remain confidential, as the law also requires.
A set of foster parents do not have the right to adopt two children without their father’s consent despite the fact that the father does not have visitation with the children, the Indiana Court of Appeals found Friday.