Right to counsel

Children in adoptions typically are not provided counsel; the Idaho Supreme Court has said, “there is no provision for appointment of counsel to represent a child in adoption proceedings that were not consolidated with proceedings to terminate the parental rights of the child's parents.”  In re John Doe I, 367 P.3d 136 (Idaho 2016). 

Where such consolidation occurs, the right to counsel would be pursuant to Idaho Code Ann. § 16-1614, in which case counsel for the child would be paid for by the "office of the state public defender unless the party for whom counsel is appointed has an independent estate sufficient to pay such costs." Id. at (3).