By: Derek Hawkins//January 3, 2018//
WI Court of Appeals – District II
Case Name: Kenosha County Department of Human Services v. V.J.G.
Case No.: 2017AP1150; 2017AP1151
Officials: HAGEDORN, J.
Focus: Termination of Parental Rights
V.J.G. appeals from orders terminating his parental rights based on his failure to personally appear at multiple hearings despite court orders to do so. V.J.G. raises a number of arguments. His first set of arguments is premised on, as he sees it, the circuit court’s lack of authority to order him to personally appear at hearings, especially in view of SCR 11.02. Second, he claims his due process rights were violated because he was not notified of the dispositional hearing. Finally, he raises an equal protection challenge against WIS. STAT. § 48.23(2)(b)3., which the circuit court used here to remove his attorney and find him in default. We reject these arguments and affirm the circuit court’s orders.