Linda Lamontagne v. Arkansas Department of Human Services and S.s.

Summary

The court held that a party must timely raise an issue in the circuit court to preserve it for appellate review, even when the matter is reviewed de novo. It overruled prior decisions to the extent they allowed appellate consideration of issues presented for the first time on appeal and affirmed without reaching the merits of the custody-and-statute-version argument. Justice Wills, concurring, agreed with the result and traced the historical origins of the abandoned equity-review rule while emphasizing that the preservation requirement had long been settled.