Appealing a Juvenile Dependency Termination of Parental Rights

Attorney Answer

You do have the right to appeal, and the deadline is longer than the 30 days you were told — a notice of appeal in a juvenile case is generally due within 60 days, and you may be entitled to a free, court-appointed appellate attorney even though your trial attorney did not help you file.

Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 395(a)(1), a judgment in a dependency proceeding may be appealed in the same manner as any final judgment, and any subsequent order may be appealed as an order after judgment. An order terminating parental rights is appealable as an order after judgment — meaning the ruling you are describing is exactly the kind of order the law contemplates being appealed.

The deadline itself is different from ordinary civil cases. Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.406(a)(1) requires a notice of appeal in a juvenile case to be filed within 60 days after the order being appealed was made — not the 30 days that applies in ordinary civil appeals. That said, the 60 days runs from the date of the order itself, so the window may already be well underway, which is why this needs immediate attention rather than time spent gathering documents first.

On getting help: Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.403(b) governs appointment of appellate counsel in juvenile appeals, including for a parent who cannot afford an attorney. So you may not need to pay for an appeal on your own — the court may be able to appoint appellate counsel for you, separate from whatever happened with your trial attorney. Welf. & Inst. Code § 395 also entitles an appellant who cannot afford counsel to a free transcript of the proceedings, which matters because you have not been able to obtain the file yourself.

If the 60 days has already run because your appointed trial attorney did not file the notice of appeal you asked for, that is not necessarily the end of it. In re A.R. (2021) 11 Cal.5th 234, a California Supreme Court decision that binds every court in the state, holds that a parent who timely instructed appointed counsel to appeal a termination of parental rights is not irrevocably deprived of the appeal when counsel filed late or not at all — she may seek relief by petition for writ of habeas corpus claiming counsel failed to provide competent representation. Two things about that decision matter to you directly: the Court declined to extend the criminal "constructive filing" doctrine to dependency cases, so habeas is the vehicle rather than an application to treat the late notice as timely filed; and relief turns on the parent's own promptness and diligence in pursuing the appeal, which is one more reason not to wait.

What you can do

1. Contact the superior court clerk's office handling the dependency case as soon as possible — or have a California attorney request the file on your behalf — to confirm the exact date the termination order was made, since that date starts your appeal clock.

2. File, or have someone file on your behalf, a notice of appeal in the dependency case. This is a short document, and filing it does not require you to appear in California in person.

3. Ask the court about appointment of appellate counsel in the juvenile appeal and about obtaining the free transcript of the proceedings.

4. Separately from the appeal, ask an appellate attorney about a petition for writ of habeas corpus based on your prior counsel's failure to file the appeal you asked for, and be ready to show when you asked and what you did afterward.

5. Do not wait to assemble every document before filing — the notice of appeal is what preserves your rights, and the record can be obtained afterward.

Time limits: Juvenile appeal deadlines are strict, generally 60 days from the order, and cannot be extended. The exact date your window closes depends on when the order was made in your case, which this answer cannot calculate for you — get individual review from a California appellate attorney right away.