Rule Text
A. The court shall require the parent to appear and to answer the petition at any time prior to the adjudication hearing but no later than fifteen days after the filing of the petition.
B. If the petition is filed prior to or during the hearing to determine continued custody, the court may order the parent to answer the petition upon completion of the hearing.
C. At the appearance, the court may either convene immediately a prehearing conference authorized by Article 646.1, or set a date for the conference.
D. At this hearing, the parent shall be asked to provide an electronic mail address at which the parent is willing to receive service and notice of future proceedings. The court shall advise the parent that once an electronic mail address is provided, all service and notice of future proceedings may be sent electronically until such time he provides notice to the court and all parties in writing or in open court that he is no longer able to receive service or notice at such address.
E. The court may schedule future hearings and serve notice in open court.
Amendment history: Acts 1991, No. 235, §6, eff. Jan. 1, 1992; Acts 1999, No. 449, §1, eff. July 1, 1999; Acts 2015, No. 124, §1, eff. June 19, 2015.
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
Here's what this rule means for parents involved in a child welfare case.
The court must have the parent come to court and respond to the petition (the legal papers starting the case) within 15 days after it's filed. This has to happen before the adjudication hearing, which is the hearing where the court decides if the claims in the petition are true. If the petition gets filed around the same time as the hearing about where the child will stay in the meantime, the court can wait until that hearing is over before asking the parent to respond.
When the parent shows up to answer the petition, the court can immediately hold a prehearing conference (a meeting to plan out the case) or schedule that conference for a later date. The court will also ask the parent for an email address where they're willing to get updates about the case. Once the parent gives an email address, the court can send all future notices and paperwork to that email instead of mailing it. The parent can stop this at any time by telling the court and the other people involved, either in writing or by saying so in court, that they can no longer use that email.
Finally, the court is allowed to set dates for future hearings and give notice of those dates right there in court, without sending separate paperwork later.
