O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 15-11-106 (2019)

Participation of a CASA

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)

Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.

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(a)(1) Before executing duties as a CASA, and upon completion of all the requirements of an affiliate court appointed special advocate program, a CASA shall be sworn in by a judge of the juvenile court in the court or circuit in which he or she wishes to serve. A CASA shall not be assigned a case prior to being sworn in by a juvenile court judge as set forth in this paragraph.

(2) If a juvenile court judge determines that a child involved in a dependency proceeding needs a CASA, the judge shall have the authority to appoint a CASA, and in such circumstance shall sign an order appointing a CASA at the earliest possible stage of the proceedings. Such order shall impose on a CASA all the duties, rights, and responsibilities set forth in this Code section and Code Sections 15-11-104 and 15-11-105.

(b) The role of a CASA in juvenile court dependency proceedings shall be to advocate for the best interests of the child.

(c) In addition to the reasons stated in subsection (h) of Code Section 15-11-104, the court may discharge a CASA upon finding that the CASA has acted in a manner contrary to the mission and purpose of the affiliate court appointed special advocate program.

History

Code 1981, § 15-11-106, enacted by Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 1-1/HB 242.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Editor’s notes. - In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under pre-2014 Code Section 15-11-9.1, which was subsequently repealed but was succeeded by provisions in this Code section, are included in the annotations for this Code section. See the Editor’s notes at the beginning of the chapter. Impeachment testimony from

CASA representative properly excluded. - In an action wherein two parents were found to have deprived an adopted child due to one parent’s sexual abuse of the child and the other parent’s failure to protect the child from such abuse, the juvenile court properly refused to allow a court-appointed special advocate (CASA) to impeach a prior foster child whom the parents had previously

cared for as former O.C.G.A. § 15-11-9.1 established confidentiality of the CASA’s information. Further, allowing such testimony was inconsistent with the CASA program and the parents had multiple

witnesses to impeach the foster child. In the Interest of B.H., 295 Ga. App. 297, 671 S.E.2d 303 (2008) (decided under former O.C.G.A. § 15-11-9.1).

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 2 cases, 2005–2005 · leading case: In the Interest of A. A., 618 S.E.2d 723 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005).

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In the Interest of A. A., 618 S.E.2d 723 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005). · cites it 2× “Presumably, the mother intended to cite OCGA § 15-11-106, which provides that termination hearings must be conducted in an expedient manner, and that an order of disposition must be issued by the juvenile court no later than one year after the filing of the petition, provided no…”

In Re Aa, 618 S.E.2d 723 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005). “Presumably, the mother intended to cite OCGA *728 § 15-11-106, which provides that termination hearings must be conducted in an expedient manner, and that an order of disposition must be issued by the juvenile court no later than one year after the filing of the petition,…”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.