As of May 1, the applicable statute now states that the Department of Human Services is not required to take "reasonable efforts" to unify parent with child if the parent is required to register as a sex offender under what is known as SORA.
Of course, some controversy has surrounded this legislation. On the one hand, critics observe that family court judges can now essentially terminate parental rights for no reason other than the SORA requirement. On the other hand, those same family court judges apparently have the discretion to order the DHS to make "reasonable efforts" to reunify parent and child, same as always. Apparently, in the passage of this law, there was significant consideration given to obtaining federal grant money available if this was the law in Michigan.
This leads to some interesting implications for us criminal defense attorneys. For example, Ionia County Family Court Judge David Hoort asks:
In criminal cases does this then require advising a defendant that his/her plea to an offense resulting in registration under the SORA could result in a termination of his/her parental rights? Even if unrelated to the existing charge?That's a good question. No surprise that SORA will continue delivering harsh consequences for those caught-up in its net.
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So as a divorced women with three children can I petition family court to terminated my ex husbands rights. He is a convicted sex offender who has to register! Not only that he is hateful toward me & has physically beaten me that's why we're divorced! He continued to emotionally abuse out 3 children! Help can I stop him from damaging our kids! My oldest who is 16 is suicidal because of his emotional abuse! I do have an attorney he has said he would have had to have sexually abused the kids he did not it was a women! Is this true?
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