In re J.D.

I.

INTRODUCTION

This opinion addresses two appellate proceedings—a writ petition and an appeal—that arise from the same juvenile dependency cases in the San Francisco Superior Court (the juvenile court), and were consolidated in this court. The person seeking appellate review in both matters is the paternal grandmother (Grandmother) of a group of siblings who are the subject of the dependency proceedings. Grandmother was appointed guardian of the sibling group by the probate department of the San Mateo Superior Court (the probate court) in 2004, more than five years before the initial petition was filed in the dependency proceedings.

Grandmother’s appeal was taken from a juvenile court order granting two petitions filed jointly by the two youngest members (collectively Minors) of the sibling group: one under Welfare and Institutions Code section 728, seeking to terminate Grandmother’s predependency probate guardianship, and another under section 388, seeking to change Minors’ placement by removing them from Grandmother’s custody, and placing them in the home of an aunt and uncle (Aunt and Uncle). Grandmother’s writ petition challenges the juvenile court’s subsequent…