In re: Matter of J.A.J.R.

── In re: Matter of J.A.J.R. ── Court: Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama Date: April 24, 2026 Author: Moore Category: General Rel: April 24, 2026 Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter. ALABAMA COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OCTOBER TERM, 2025-2026 _________________________ CL-2026-0223 _________________________ Ex parte P.R.P. PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS (In re: Matter of J.A.J.R.) (Marshall Juvenile Court: JU-19-739.03) MOORE, Presiding Judge. P.R.P. ("the mother") petitions this court to issue a writ of mandamus directing the Marshall Juvenile Court ("the juvenile court") to allow her to appear and testify remotely through audiovisual technology at an upcoming dispositional hearing in a dependency CL-2026-0223 proceeding involving J.A.J.R. ("the child").1 We grant the petition in part and deny the petition in part. Facts and Procedural History The mother is a resident of Aldea Tzujan, a rural area of Guatemala. She gave birth to the child in 2014. In early 2019, the mother consented to the child's father, F.M. ("the father"), illegally immigrating to the United States with the child. The father and the child eventually settled in Marshall County. On July 18, 2019, the Marshall County Department of Human Resources ("DHR") assumed custody of the child based on allegations that the father had sexually abused the child. Without contacting the mother, DHR filed a dependency petition. 1In her mandamus petition, the mother refers to the ongoing proceedings in the juvenile court as dependency proceedings and characterizes a hearing scheduled to take place on April 29, 2026, as a dispositional hearing. See Ala. Code 1975, § 12-15-311. Although the Marshall County Department of Human Resources has filed a motion in the juvenile court contesting the nature of the underlying proceedings, in its answer to the mandamus petition it does not dispute the mother's characterization of the proceedings and the upcoming hearing, so we accept the mother's characterization as true. See Ex parte Guaranty Pest Control, Inc., 21 So. 3d 1222, 1227 (Ala. 2009) (quoting King v. Smith, 288 Ala. 215, 219, 259 So. 2d 244, 248 (1972), quoting in turn Ex parte Adams, 216 Ala. 353, 355, 113 So. 513, 515 (1927)) (" ' "In passing upon the petition for mandamus, the return or answer of respondent, unless controverted, is to be taken as true." ' "). 2 CL-2026-0223 In a dependency proceeding in which the mother was not served, the juvenile court adjudicated the child to be a dependent child and placed the child into foster care. The child has lived in various foster homes ever since. On June 22, 2020, DHR, having had no contact with the mother, filed a petition to terminate the mother's parental rights. The juvenile court ordered that the mother be served by publication. After the mother did not appear in the termination proceedings, the juvenile court proceeded to trial and terminated the mother's parental rights in her absence. The mother subsequently appeared and filed a Rule 60(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., motion to vacate the termination judgment. The juvenile court granted the motion, and the case against the mother was rescheduled for trial in 2023. On December 4, 2023, the juvenile court entered a judgment, again terminating the mother's parental rights based on its determination that the mother had abandoned the child and that DHR's reasonable efforts to reunite