North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

  Given the respondent-father’s multiple mental illness diagnoses and the pressure which a termination of parental rights hearing would present for any parent, we cannot infer from the father’s query in reference to his guardian ad litem—“What’s your name?”—that the ...

Even though a 2004 Georgia court order granted custody of “Scott” to the respondent-mother, (1) Scott had been living in North Carolina since at least 2010 when DSS filed its neglect petition in 2014 and (2) the respondent-parents have not ...

Even though plaintiffs provided much of the care for their great-niece, the defendant-mother, in seeking help from relatives after she had a child when she was very young herself, did not act inconsistently with her protected status as a parent. ...

  Even though the order terminating the respondent-father’s parental rights did not explicitly state that its findings were made on clear, cogent and convincing proof, since the trial court explicitly stated the proper standard of proof in open court at ...

Even if the trial court’s finding—that the defendant-mother’s testimony “lacked credibility”—was based, in part, on an unrecorded contempt hearing held the week before the custody hearing, the trial court’s custody order found that the mother’s testimony lacked credibility for several ...

In determining whether the respondent-mother’s child, “Zelda,” was neglected, the trial court could consider the findings of fact from an order terminating respondent’s parental rights to one of her older children. By doing so, the trial court did not violate ...

Even though, in this termination of parental rights proceeding, the trial court conducted the adjudicatory and dispositional phases in one consolidated hearing, the court properly adjudicated the existence of the ground for termination – willful abandonment – before determining whether ...

Although the trial court acknowledged that defendant, a soldier stationed in Kentucky, was not on leave until four days before a custody hearing, the trial court erred (1) by failing to enter a ruling on defendant’s motion for a 90-day ...

Even though two of the parties’ four minor children began living with the plaintiff-husband in June 2015, the husband could not unilaterally modify the amount of his family support payment required by a “Parenting Agreement and a Memorandum of Judgment/Order.” ...

  Although no petition alleging neglect was ever filed, petitioners presented evidence that “Robin” suffered a broken leg as a baby while she was in the respondent-mother’s care, and respondent asked petitioners’ parents to care for Robin when Robin was ...