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WEST PALM BEACH - An appellate court has struck down part of a Florida law that makes it easier for the state to permanently take away a parent's custody rights.
The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled last week that the Department of Children and Families cannot try to sever a parent's legal ties to a child solely on the grounds that the parent's rights to an older sibling were terminated.
The ruling, likely headed for review by the state Supreme Court, addresses the question of whether parents who lose their rights to their children can kick drug habits, overcome mental illnesses or take other steps to raise new babies safely.
"I think the decision is saying that people can change, and families deserve to be together if they can be," said Fort Lauderdale attorney Felicia Shaman, who represented a Broward County mother.
The woman, identified as F.L. in court papers, lost her rights to six of her children, beginning in 1997, for failing to provide proper medical care. DCF also alleged that she was a victim of domestic violence and at times appeared intoxicated in front of several of the children.
The agency in 2002 took away her seventh child, citing the earlier removal of her other children, even though the court record stated that she willingly sought help for her problems and appeared to be providing a clean, nurturing home for the baby.
"The power and authority of DCF to seek termination of parental rights is a significant and continuing problem in this state," Judge Martha Warner wrote for the court. "DCF should neither be too slow to protect our precious children, nor too quick to terminate a parent's fundamental right to raise his or her child."
The court found that the law, as written, "unconstitutionally shifts the burden to the parent" to prove he or she is fit to raise a child.
Attorneys who represent parents in abuse and neglect cases said the ruling will force DCF to prove that other factors in a family make it dangerous for a child to return home from foster care.
It is also likely to strip DCF of leverage it commonly uses to encourage parents to surrender their children without a trial, court observers said.
DCF officials declined to comment on the ruling. A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, which represented DCF, said the state will ask the appellate court to reconsider its decision.
The ruling for now is binding only in six South Florida counties. If the Supreme Court sustains it, it will apply to the whole state.