Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Associate Judge’s Report and Order is still a final order, but...

While the case set forth in my 10/27/12 post still appears to be the law, this 12/11/13 Fourth Court Opinion says that if the handwritten Associate Judge’s Report and Order lacks a best-interest finding, lacks identifying information, and uses vague abbreviations for the grounds of termination, then the Fourth Court cannot conduct a proper review of the evidence, which requires them to reverse that portion of the order terminating appellant’s parental rights and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings in the interest of justice.
http://www.search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=1a3d035f-687c-4738-bc74-8750309907dd&coa=coa04&DT=Opinion&MediaID=23bffcb1-51e8-429b-9940-b5c7245c60d6