COVID and the Due Process Rights of Incarcerated Parents

Below is a post I recently published on our On the Civil Side blog that I thought would be of interest to defense attorneys. The post explores the appeal of an order terminating a father's parental rights following a hearing the father could not participate in because of a COVID-19 prison lockdown. The notions of due process, procedural fairness, and liberty interests will be familiar to you. The case, In re C.A.B., 2022-NCSC-51, also serves as a reminder that for a client who is incarcerated before or after a trial, the client's life and family—and the world at large—go on. The ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic on prisons and the court system have been wide-reaching. We are still seeing, and will likely continue to see, the tentacles of these issues stretch into cases for years to come. The North Carolina Supreme Court recently issued a decision tackling one such issue: whether a parent who was unable to attend a termination of parental rights hearing because he was incarcerated during a pandemic-related prison lockdown was entitled to a continuance so he could be present for the hearing. In re C.A.B., 2022-NCSC-51, ¶ 1.   What happened Caleb was only a few days old when, in January 2019, Social Services received non-secure custody of him. For unrelated reasons, Caleb’s father was already being held on federal charges. A little over a month later, the Respondent Father provided a visiting social worker with the names of potential relative placements with whom he wanted Caleb [...]