Working with Child Deprivation Cases in Georgia's Juvenile Courts

I

INTRODUCTION

As a law or volunteer guardian ad litem, you will become heavily involved in the juvenile court process in cases involving the abuse or neglect of children. In the representation of children, the lack of a commonly accepted definition is confusing; the titles include: child advocate attorney, guardian ad litem, volunteer guardian ad litem, etc. In Georgia, volunteer guardians ad litem are trained by Georgia CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. For the sake of this manual, we will be referring to attorney guardians ad litem as law guardians and volunteer guardian ad litems as CASAs. This manual is designed to give you an in-depth understanding of Georgia deprivation law and juvenile court procedures. The manual is arranged in procedural chronological order and will take the reader through the legal requirements and the expectations of the court in a deprivation case from the first allegations of abuse and neglect, through the removal of the child from the home, up to and including family reunification or termination of parental rights.

Issues discussed in the manual include: the investigation of an allegation by DFCS, Preliminary Custody, 72-hour emergency hearings, the filing of deprivation petitions, adjudicatory and dispositional hearings, judicial review of cases and the termination of parental rights. The Juvenile Code of Georgia can be found at Title 15, Chapter 11 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. O.C.G.A. § 15-11-4 provides that the Council of Juvenile Court Judges can promulgate rules and forms governing the procedures and practice of juvenile courts throughout the state. The Council is composed of all juvenile court judges within the state. This mirrors a provision in the state constitution that allows the Supreme Court to adopt and publish uniform court rules with the advice and consent of the council of judges in the affected class. (Ga. Const. Art. VI, § IX, é I.) The Supreme Court took such action with the publication of the Uniform Rules for the Juvenile Courts of Georgia. We will be referring to the rules periodically throughout this manual.