Procedure: Involuntary Term. 404 – 407

4 hours TN General CLE

An involuntary termination of parental rights is always a procedurally, emotionally, and factually tough case. Even when the outcome is near certain, many termination cases are appealed, and sustaining a win on appeal requires near procedural perfection, compared to most other civil cases. Petitioners’ counsel and the judge must meet the high standards every day in every case. 

This four-hour series is made up of 3 classes, of varied lengths, that take a termination case consecutively from filing through appeal, with lingering stops at service of process, publication, default judgments, discovery, and the popular last and longest segment on trial practice. Much of the planning, organization, and trial practice portion of the class applies to all litigation, so it can strengthen a litigation practice beyond terminations. For example, students love the T-Minus calendar concept to apply some order to a sprawling period of trial prep.

Lawyers who have never tried a termination case will be better prepared to take on the significant challenge. But it’s lawyers who do this work who love this series most. They report finding that discussion of issues and challenges that they previously wrestled with alone is not just informative, but a source of affirmation and community. They aren’t sloppy, unprepared, or unlucky. These cases are just that hard. Some of the struggles have black letter answers, some good arguments, and some are just intractable. As usual, Dawn talks about all this clearly and candidly, helping you anticipate issues and step around quicksand. Oh, and there is a link to Good Law’s Tennessee termination lawyers’ crowd-sourced pretrial playlist. You’re welcome.

Prepetition client counseling and litigation ethics are covered in Ethics 201, and settlement and mediation of TPR cases are covered in a Good Law course offered apart from Adoption Law School.