Robert L. v. Superior Court

Robin J. (hereafter the mother) and Robert L. (hereafter the father) each seek a writ overturning the juvenile court’s termination of reunification services after a 12-month review hearing and setting of a permanency planning hearing pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26. The mother challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to show that return of the children to her custody would be detrimental, and she claims that the reunification plan was inadequate. The father claims that the juvenile court’s order setting a permanency planning hearing must be reversed because the evidence does not support the requisite finding that reasonable reunification services had been offered or provided to him. We deny the petitions.

Facts

Jessica L., Robert L. and Carolyn L. are the children of the mother and the father. On January 11, 1995, these three children were detained after they were found living in a very dirty house without food, and the mother admitted that she had spent her welfare money on drinking. Prior to the children’s detention, five months of informal intervention had been attempted and proved unsuccessful because the mother refused to comply with the…