The juvenile court terminated the natural mother’s parental rights to her two children, C. T. M. and T. A. M.1 On appeal, the mother contends that the trial court erred in finding: 1 present clear and convincing evidence of parental misconduct or inability; 2 the causes of deprivation are likely to continue; 3 continued deprivation is likely to cause serious physical, mental, emotional, or moral harm to the children; and 4 termination of parental rights is in the children’s best interest. Finding no error, we affirm. 1. As a threshold matter, we must address the inadequacy of the trial transcript. The court reporter was unable to understand much of what was said during the hearing, and the transcript reflects this.2 For example, one exchange was documented by the court reporter as follows: Q Now, when was an order entered requiring the mother to pay child support A Inaudible —for child support —inaudible. Q Do you know —inaudible. A I don’t —inaudible. Q Do you know when an actual order —inaudible —child support recovery —inaudible do you know when they entered their order A No. Pursuant to OCGA § 15-11-41 b, juvenile proceedings “shall be recorded by stenographic notes or by electronic, mechanical, or other appropriate means.” Here, the proceeding was tape-recorded, which is an acceptable means of recordation.3 However, the tape quality was so poor that the court reporter charged with transcribing the tape was unable to understand much of what was said during the hearing. Thus, portions of the transcript are useless.
“Where the transcript . . . does not fully disclose what transpired at trial, the burden is on the complaining party to have the record completed in the trial court under the provisions of OCGA § 5-6-41 f.”4 The mother’s failure to complete the record has greatly impeded our review. Given the gravity of the issue presented, we will —to the best of our ability —attempt to discern what transpired below based upon the transcript available. Where the transcript is inadequate to address any claim of error, we will assume the trial court’s ruling is correct and affirm.5
