The People v. A.H.

Summary

The California Court of Appeal addressed whether a juvenile court may order placement of a minor in a short-term residential therapeutic program without first receiving and considering the statutorily required case plan. The court held that Welfare and Institutions Code sections 706.5 and 706.6 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.785 require submission and consideration of the case plan before a foster-care placement disposition. Although the court found the placement order procedurally improper, it dismissed the appeal as moot because the order had been vacated while the appeal was pending.

Holdings

1. An appellate court may exercise its discretion to decide a technically moot issue when the issue is of public interest, capable of repetition, and likely to evade normal appellate review because the controversy is short-lived.
2. Assuming the claim was forfeited, the court may exercise its discretion to reach a forfeited pure question of statutory interpretation presented by undisputed facts when it is an important, recurring issue of first impression.
3. When probation recommends placing a minor in foster care, including an STRTP, probation must submit a case plan before disposition and the juvenile court must consider that case plan before issuing the dispositional placement order.
4. The juvenile court abused its discretion by ordering STRTP placement without first receiving and considering the required case plan.
5. The court did not decide whether the failure to comply with the case-plan requirements was harmless because the placement order had been vacated and the harmless-error issue was moot.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the court should decide the appeal despite the subsequent vacation of the STRTP placement order because the issue was capable of repetition, short-lived, and of public interest.
2. Whether A.H. forfeited his claim that the juvenile court could not order STRTP placement without a case plan.
3. Whether Welfare and Institutions Code sections 706.5 and 706.6 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.785 require probation to submit, and the juvenile court to consider, a case plan before issuing a dispositional order placing a minor in foster care or an STRTP.
4. Whether the failure to submit and consider the case plan required reversal or whether harmless-error analysis could be decided.

Disposition

dismissed