Right to counsel
The court must, if requested by the child (and may, on the court’s own initiative) appoint counsel for children in cases involving a) domestic relations; b) custody or support of an out-of-wedlock child; c) paternity; or d) a petition by a person with an emotional tie to a child for intervention in a child custody, placement, or guardianship proceeding. Or. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 107.425(6), 109.072(5). See also In re Marriage of Thomason, 174 Or.App. 37, 44 (Ct. App. 2001) (explaining that court’s ability to appoint counsel is limited to specific situations enumerated in statute; to hold otherwise “would be a limitless grant of authority to appoint counsel for a child at any time—even upon the court’s own motion—and to impose the costs on the child’s parents.”).
