Rule 11.130.New Dependency Petition Allegations, When Child Is a Ward

When a child is already a ward, new allegations do not open a new file. Any new petition containing allegations under ORS 419B.100 is filed under the ward's existing dependency case number, unless ORS 419B.118 permits otherwise. If more than one dependency case number exists for the ward in the current wardship episode, the petition goes under the first case number established during that episode.

The petition also has to identify itself on sight. The document title carries the sequential number of the petition in front of the word PETITION, so a later filing reads as a second petition rather than as another unlabeled document. Inside the body goes the spine of the case so far: the date of the initial judgment establishing jurisdiction over the ward during the current wardship episode, the existing bases of jurisdiction with the date each was established in a judgment of jurisdiction and whether each allegation was admitted or otherwise proved, and any allegation still pending from a previous petition together with the title of that petition.

Numbering continues rather than restarting. An allegation filed in an existing wardship petition is numbered consecutively to the allegations listed in the previous petition, so the allegations across the wardship read as one continuous set instead of several overlapping ones.

Service is not relaxed. A copy of any new petition containing allegations under ORS 419B.100 filed during an existing wardship must be served with a summons in accordance with ORS 419B.815. All of this sits on top of the pleading requirements in ORS 419B.809, ORS 419B.863, and ORS 419B.866, not in place of them.