DHS v. T.L.

The Court of Appeals will not address arguments not preserved for appeal in the lower court.

Father appeals the juvenile court's jurisdictional judgments, which made his four children wards of the court and suspended his visitation with them. The court found, as alleged by DHS, that the conditions Father placed his children in were conditions which endangered their welfare. Father first asserted on appeal that DHS had failed to prove one of the allegations against him, and second that "when a child is placed in substitute care, the parent is entitled to visitation with the child unless the record establishes that visitation with the parent would endanger the health or safety of the child." However, Father failed to address either argument in juvenile court, and thus the issues could were not preserved to be heard on appeal. The court found that although a due process claim could have been raised in the juvenile court, because neither issue was preserved for appeal, the court would not address Father’s arguments on appeal. Affirmed.