In re Jaelynn K.-M.

Syllabus

The respondent mother appealed from the trial court's judgments rendered for the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families, terminating her parental rights with respect to her minor children. The mother, who had been defaulted for failure to appear at the termination proceedings, claimed, inter alia, that the court violated her right to due process by con- structively depriving her of her right to the effective assistance of coun- sel. Held: The respondent mother's claim that the trial court's constructive deprivation of counsel constituted structural error for which prejudice was presumed and a rule of automatic reversal applied was unavailing, as this court declined to apply such a rule in the context of child protection cases. Even if this court assumed that the trial court constructively deprived the respondent mother of her right to the effective assistance of counsel, the mother failed to show resulting prejudice and, thus, any violation of that right was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Even if this court assumed that the trial court violated the respondent mother's due process rights when it denied her counsel's request for a continuance of the hearing on the termination petitions because the mother was not present, any error was harmless. Even if this court assumed that the trial court violated the respondent mother's due process rights by failing to provide her and her counsel with adequate notice of the hearing on the petitions to terminate the mother's parental rights, the mother failed to explain at the hearing on the motion to open the judgments what additional evidence she would have presented had she and her counsel received proper notice and, accordingly, the trial court's error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Argued September 10—officially released November 25, 2024 In accordance with the spirit and intent of General Statutes § 46b-142 (b) and Practice Book § 79a-12, the names of the parties involved in this appeal are not di