In In re Z.G., the Supreme Court on Monday held that the Legislature has not changed a 1992 Court of Appeal’s statutory interpretation that a likelihood of a child’s adoption is not alone enough to justify ending parental rights.
The Fifth District concluded over 30 years ago, “the fact that a dependent child is likely to be adopted will not by itself support an order terminating parental rights.” (In re DeLonnie S. (1992) 9 Cal.App.4th 1109, 1113.) The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Liu agrees, finding that the relevant statutes preclude “the termination of parental rights absent reunification services.” It also rejects an argument that statutory amendments in 1998 and 2007 abrogated the Fifth District’s conclusion.
Additionally, the opinion finds that the mother’s attorney in the case provided ineffective assistance of counsel “in failing to raise Mother’s entitlement to reunification services as to [one of her two children].”
The court reversed a 2-1 unpublished opinion by the Fourth District, Division Two, Court of Appeal.
