Rule 3.973.Dispositional Hearing

MCR 3.973 covers the hearing where a child protective case turns from proof to consequences. Once the court has found after trial, a plea of admission, or a plea of no contest that one or more statutory grounds in the petition are true, the dispositional hearing decides what measures the court will take with respect to the child and, when it applies, against an adult. Subrule (A) states that purpose.

Timing and attendance

Subrule (C) leaves the gap between trial and disposition to the court's discretion, with one limit: when the child is in placement, the interval may not be more than 28 days, except for good cause. Notice can be as informal as scheduling the hearing on the record in the presence of the parties under subrule (B), unless the hearing follows the trial immediately. Under subrule (D) the child may be excused as the child's interests require, the respondent has the right to be present or may appear through an attorney, and the court may proceed in the absence of parties who received proper notice.

Evidence and reports

Subrule (E)(1) turns off the Michigan Rules of Evidence at the initial dispositional hearing except for privileges, and MCL 722.631 keeps most of those privileges from blocking materials prepared under a court-ordered examination, interview, or course of treatment. The attorney-client privilege is the exception. Under subrule (E)(2) all relevant and material evidence, including oral and written reports, may be received and relied on to the extent of its probative value, and the court must consider the case service plan along with information from the parent, guardian, legal custodian, foster parent, child caring institution, or relative with whom the child is placed. Subrule (E)(5) sets a deadline: agency case file reports, including case service plans, evaluations, screening results, provider reports, and parenting time logs, go to the court and parties no less than seven (7) days before the hearing. Parties may examine and controvert written reports under subrule (E)(3), while foster parents and caregivers receive the reports under subrule (E)(4) but respond only by written or oral statement.

Orders and appeal advice

The court may not enter a dispositional order until it has examined the case service plan as provided in MCL 712A.18f, per subrule (F)(2). Where appropriate the order states whether reasonable efforts were made to prevent removal or to rectify the conditions that caused it. Unless the court has already ordered the release of medical information, a foster care placement order must direct the parent, guardian, or legal custodian to give the supervising agency the name and address of each of the child's medical providers and must direct those providers to release the records, under subrule (F)(4), and subrule (F)(5) permits a child support order complying with MCL 552.605 and MCR 3.211(D).

When the court enters an initial order of disposition following adjudication, subrule (G) requires it to advise the respondent, orally or in writing, about challenging continuing jurisdiction under MCL 712A.21, about appellate review of the initial dispositional order, about appointed counsel and transcripts for an indigent respondent, and about the risk of being barred from challenging jurisdiction later without a timely appeal under MCR 7.204 or a delayed appeal under MCR 3.993(C). Subrule (H) preserves that challenge where rights were terminated at the initial disposition under MCR 3.977(E) or where the court failed to give the advice in subrules (G)(2) through (G)(4).