Ex Parte L.J. (In Re C.C. v. L.J.)

Summary

The court held that Alabama juvenile courts have exclusive original jurisdiction over a parent's petition to terminate the other parent's parental rights even when the case does not arise from a delinquency, dependency, or child-in-need-of-supervision proceeding. It concluded that the 2008 statutory revisions did not eliminate the juvenile court's longstanding jurisdiction and that the 2014 amendments confirmed that interpretation and applied retroactively to this pending case. Justices Murdock, Bolin, and Shaw concurred separately, with Bolin and Shaw relying principally on the retroactive 2014 amendments and Murdock emphasizing the statutory history and legislative clarification.