In the Interest of I.l.m., Children.

Summary

The Court held that a juvenile court may continue a dependency adjudication hearing on its own initiative, but any continuance beyond the statutory deadline must satisfy the detailed good-cause, necessity, evidentiary, and record-making requirements governing such continuances. The juvenile court failed to explain why the dependency hearing had to be postponed to the selected date, causing the adjudication deadline to be missed; therefore, its refusal to dismiss the dependency petition without prejudice was an abuse of discretion. The Court reversed the Court of Appeals.