Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights • Right to Counsel • Notice

In Re Adoption of C.A.S., PICS Case No. 17-1050 (Pa. Super. June 21, 2017) Strassburger, J. (8 pages).

Orphans' court erred in failing to grant a continuance and in finding that father waived his right to counsel in a hearing to involuntarily terminate his parental rights. Order vacated.

Mother and her boyfriend petitioned to involuntarily terminate father's parental rights. Father appeared pro se at the hearing and requested a continuance to seek counsel. Father explained that he had contacted the legal services organization named in some of the documents he received but that they told him they did not take custody cases. The court focused on the forms provided to father that directed him to file a form with the court to get court-appointed counsel and father's failure to do so and denied the continuance and terminated father's parental rights. Father appealed.