Court of Appeals Vacates and Reverses Guardianship Order

In an unanimous opinion, the N.C. Court of Appeals agreed that the District Court failed to make adequate findings supporting Wake County DHHS’s decision to cease working with a mother toward reunification with her daughter and vacated the order granting guardianship of the child to a third party and remanding the order for further proceedings.  Christopher Watford of Surratt and Thompson, PLLC represented the mother.  “The aim of the juvenile code and the child welfare system is to help reunify children with their families in safe and stable homes,” Watford later added, “while the statute allows DSS to cease working with a parent, the law requires a court to make very specific findings justifying that decision.  in this case, the trial court did not observe this requirement and the mother is entitled to a new hearing on this issue.”  The case can be found only in electronic form at the current time,   In re J.M., 2020 WL 2121297 (N.C. Ct. App. 5 May 2020)