A judge’s order forbidding a father to see or obtain information about his young daughter isn’t tantamount to terminating his parental rights, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled, because it left open the possibility he could see ...

Tagged with: parental rights

Parental rights can’t be terminated on the grounds of abandonment without a showing that the parent’s conduct was willful, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled. The litigants in the case, referred to only as Mother and Father in ...

Tagged with: parental rights

  Last month, when candidates for the N.C. Supreme Court sat down for interviews with North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, they pointed out that on Jan. 1, the state’s highest court’s caseload is going to increase exponentially – by at least ...

Tagged with: parental rights

Given the constitutional right at issue in termination-of-parental-rights cases, when appellate counsel files a no-merit brief but cannot find his client, we must consider such situations on a case-by-case basis. In this case, due to the exhaustive – but unsuccessful ...

Tagged with: parental rights

The decision to end a mother’s parental rights has been overturned by the North Carolina Court of Appeals, despite her failure to improve on a number of personal problems, including drug abuse, cited by the Granville County Department of Social ...

Tagged with: parental rights

In re M.P.M. (Lawyers Weekly No. 010-011-16, 1 p.) (Per Curiam) Appealed from Guilford County District Court (Michelle Fletcher, J.) On appeal from the Court of Appeals. N.C. S. Ct. Holding: The court affirms the decision of the majority in ...

Tagged with: parental rights

In re S.D. (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-07-0849, 13 pp.) (Donna Stroud, J.) Appealed from Wake County District Court (Monica Bousman, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Where the trial court’s termination of parental rights was mainly based on (1) the possibility of ...

Tagged with: parental rights

In re M.P.M. (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-07-0847, 31 pp.) (Donna Stroud, J.) (John Tyson, J., dissenting) Appealed from Guilford County District Court (Michelle Fletcher, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Where the respondent-father appeared to be more concerned about the feelings of ...

Tagged with: parental rights

In re T.H. (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-07-0053, 32 pp.) (Wanda G. Bryant, J.) Appealed from Rowan County District Court (Charlie Brown & Lillian B. Jordan, JJ.) N.C. App. Holding: A biological mother, who surrendered her parental rights so her children ...

Tagged with: Juvenile Code parental rights

In its only authored opinion for the month of December, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the state’s Court of Appeals and found that a Cumberland County judge had filed a valid order ending efforts to reunite one mother with ...

Tagged with: N.C. Supreme Court parental rights