PHOENIX — A 10-year-old child can’t be kept in the dark about who is her biological father and then not be given some say over whether his legal connection to her should be permanently severed, the Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled.
In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel acknowledged a trial judge had appointed an attorney to represent the girl’s interest in the legal proceeding. That, appellate Judge Andrew Jacobs said, was the correct decision.
But where it all went wrong, the appellate court said, is when that appointed counsel told the trial court that, in her judgment, cutting the legal ties to the father was in the girl’s best interest.
