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Name: In re L.M.
Case #: A124299
Opinion Date: 09/09/2009
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 5
Citation: 177 Cal.App.4th 645
Summary

The juvenile court properly denied father’s motion for travel costs to visit a delinquent minor where insufficient evidence was provided to the court. The 12-year-old minor was declared a court ward under section 602 and placed in a residential treatment center several hundred miles away from his home. The goal of his case plan was reunification with his father, and monthly visitation was ordered. The minor filed a motion to compel the probation department to pay for his father’s transportation costs to the monthly visits. The motion was denied, and the minor appealed. The appellate court concluded that a juvenile court may order an agency to assist the parent of a delinquent child with travel costs for visitation. However, here the trial court properly denied the motion based on the record before it. The motion was unaccompanied by any declaration or other competent evidence to provide details about father’s financial circumstances or the likely cost of travel. The appellate court noted that nothing in its decision precluded the minor or father from bringing a new motion for travel costs based on additional information.