San Mateo County Department of Social Services v. Joe P.

In this case, because due process requires that parents be afforded notice and an opportunity to be heard at a jurisdictional hearing in juvenile court dependency proceedings, we hold it is reversible error to fail to continue the hearing where counsel for an out-of-state parent was appointed by the court two days prior to the hearing and, despite reasonable efforts, had been unable to make contact with his client, since this prevented counsel from acquainting himself with the case and conferring with his client in order to prepare for the hearing. It is reversible error even in the absence of a request by counsel for a continuance, where counsel was clearly without authority to act on his client’s behalf at the jurisdictional hearing.

Joe P. appeals from an order declaring his child C. P. a dependent child of the court (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 300) and from a subsequent disposition order. We reverse the jurisdictional order and remand the cause for a new jurisdictional hearing.

*272 A petition filed under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 alleged that on September 1, 1983, C.’s mother, Marcia D., was found lying on a sidewalk bleeding from a self-inflicted wound…