[tenderlovingtreasure]

I have a question about tpr. when tpr is filed and court is held, say mom voluntarily surrendered her rights but dad wants to fight the tpr what happens? Does the judge give his results then or can they take a while to decide? We are totally unsure of what happens during a tpr. Sorry for all the questions but we are kinda new to all this stuff.

[mrstkg1]

In Illinois, TPR is a long process that takes place over the course of several months. There are many components to it and a lot of hearings. It might be different in other states.

[ranoutofnames]

That is the scenario we had with A1. I live in Kansas and can share what happened with ours.

The day of the TPR trial (both parents said they wanted a trial to prolong the process) her bmom voluntarily surrendered. She went into the judge first and signed over then left.

The bdad wanted a trial. In this particular case it took two days for the trial. Because I had "Interested Party Status" and no one had any reason to object I was allowed to sit through both days to hear everyone's testimony. The people called to the stand included the bdad, step-mom, and case worker. Because he had been absent there wasn't really anyone else to call that would have any evidence to present. The bdad was the last on the stand and the last person to ask him a question was the GAL. He asked "You're daughter has been in foster care for almost 3yrs, do you feel any responsibility for her still being in foster care" and he stated "none what so ever". That was the end of the trial... no closing argument was presented as the GAL and DA wanted the bdad's words to be the last thing the judge heard.

The judge had 90 days to provide a written decision, he took 80days. (Some states I've heard they will give a decision at the conclusion of the trial). From that point the bdad had 30 days to file an appeal. On day 30 he filed "Intent to Appeal" papers with the district court. He then had an additional 30days to get the appeals paperwork into the state Court of Appeals.

That started a process that can take anywhere from 1-3 yrs. I contacted the Court of Appeals and found out it takes 1 yr if NO extensions are granted, 3yrs if ALL extensions are granted. I provided information to the clerk (age of child, adoptive resource has been caregiver for 3yrs, etc) and he took it to one of the review judges. They immediately signed the case as an Expedited case, which means no extensions will be granted. Unfortunately the order wasn't signed before the day one stenographer had already requested an extension (we had personally spoken to the day two stenographer at court and warned her the bdad will appeal so she went ahead and transcribed hers.) The stenographer was given a 30day extension and used all 30 days.

It took 11months to go through the Court of Appeals to get a written decision. We had to wait an additional 30 days to see if bdad would/could get enough Supreme Court judges to agree to hear the case... he wasn't granted a SC hearing.

After this it still took several months for everyone to get all the court documents, our homestudy and background checks had to be redone as they had expired, etc. From the date of the TPR trial to the date we adopted her it took 22months... it would have been longer if I hadn't been on top of her case the whole time.

This is how TPR and appeals go in Kansas.

[Kristin7]

Mrstkg1-

What makes it such a long process in Illinois? I"m in Illinois and really haven't a clue what I am in for in the next several months with my girls' case.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[mrstkg1]

Kristin,

I PM'ed you