Duration of Disposition Orders

1. Law
2. Georgia Code
3. Courts
4. Juvenile Code
5. Dependency Proceedings
6. Disposition
7. Duration of Disposition Orders

1. An order of disposition in a dependency proceeding shall continue in force until the purposes of the order have been accomplished.
2. The court may terminate an order of disposition of a child adjudicated as a dependent child on or without an application of a party if it appears to the court that the purposes of the order have been accomplished.
3. When a child adjudicated as a dependent child reaches 18 years of age, all orders in connection with dependency proceedings affecting him or her then in force terminate and he or she shall be discharged from further obligation or control.

(Code 1981, §15-11-214, enacted by Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 1-1/HB 242; Ga. L. 2018, p. 927, § 1-4/HB 906.)

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2020, substituted the present provisions of subsection (c) for the former provisions, which read: "Unless a child remains in DFCS care or continues to receive services from DFCS, when a child adjudicated as a dependent child reaches 18 years of age, all orders affecting him or her then in force terminate and he or she shall be discharged from further obligation or control."

Cross references.

- Age of legal majority, § 39-1-1.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Inconvenient forum.

- In a child custody case in which the children had been removed from their Georgia mother's custody and had lived in Florida with their father for more than two years and most of the witnesses lived outside of Georgia, the juvenile court erred in dismissing the mother's petition for custody based on inconvenient forum without making specific findings demonstrating its consideration of all of the factors in O.C.G.A. § 19-9-67(b)(1) through (8). Further, the case should be stayed, not dismissed. In the Interest of A. L., 351 Ga. App. 824, 833 S.E.2d 296 (2019).

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