TPR – Forfeiture of Jury Trial
Failure to appear at initial hearing and make timely request forfeited right to jury trial; trial court’s ultimate refusal to enter default judgment “did not return the case to the initial hearing stage or reinstate Luis’s right to a jury trial”; nor did filing of amended petition reset this clock; finally, the court suggests that denial of right to jury trial was, even if erroneous, harmless, because “(a) jury trial would not have led to a different outcome,” ¶35, given the strength of evidence on grounds—an odd aside, given that denial of right to jury is generally thought not subject to harmless error analysis.
On Point
by the Wisconsin State Public Defender
