In re M.R., et al.

Summary

The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed a juvenile court judgment granting temporary custody of two minor children to the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services. The court held that the father could not challenge the dependency adjudication without timely objections and the required transcript, and that he failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel in the temporary-custody proceeding.

Holdings

1. A party who fails to timely object to a magistrate's decision and provide the required transcript may not challenge the magistrate's factual findings or legal conclusions on appeal except for plain error. A transcript filed only in the appellate court cannot be considered when it was not provided to the trial court.
2. The statutory timing requirements for an adjudicatory hearing under R.C. 2151.28(A)(2) are not jurisdictional; a hearing held outside those timeframes does not deprive the juvenile court of authority to adjudicate dependency or invalidate its order.
3. The February 12, 2025 dispositional hearing was timely under R.C. 2151.35(B)(1), which permits a reasonable extension of up to 45 days beyond the initial 90-day period for good cause.
4. The court declined to extend a constitutional guarantee of effective assistance of counsel to temporary-custody proceedings. In any event, father failed to establish ineffective assistance because he did not show deficient performance resulting in prejudice.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the juvenile court erred in finding the children dependent and awarding temporary custody to CCDCFS when father failed to object to the magistrate's decision and failed to provide the required transcript.
2. Whether father received ineffective assistance of trial counsel based on counsel's failure to object to the timing of the adjudicatory and dispositional hearings and failure to file objections to the magistrate's decision.

Disposition

affirmed