How have courts dealt with a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in a custody matter?

Relying on In re Noreen G., parents argue that, while the court made its required statutory findings, it did so based on a statutorily inadequate report. (In re Noreen G. (2010) 181 Cal.App.4th 1359.) Grandparents concede the report did not contain findings regarding minor's relationship with mother as required by section 1516.5, but contend parents forfeited this claim by failing to object in the trial court. Parents counter they preserved this claim because mother pointed out the inadequacies of the report during the probation officer's testimony and argued during her closing argument that the evidence did not support terminating her parental rights given the inadequacies of the report. The problem with parents' argument is that arguing to the trial court that evidence did not support freeing minor is not the same as arguing to the trial court that the court was precluded from making a determination at all. Parents never objected to the court rendering a decision on an inadequate report; instead, they relied on the inadequacies of the report to win their case. This presents the classic case of forfeiture. (People v. Saunders (1993) 5 Cal.4th 580, 589-590, 591, fn. 7 [the well-established general rule is that a party's failure to object in the trial court results in a forfeiture of the claim of error on appeal].)

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Indeed, in In re Noreen G., the court concluded a similar claim was forfeited. (In re Noreen G., supra, 181 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1379-1380.) There, the report was lacking the statutorily required recommendation of the investigator under Family Code section 7851. (In re Noreen G., at p. 1380.) Despite finding the parents forfeited their appellate claim the report was inadequate, the court exercised its discretion to reach the merits in light of another appellate claim that counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the inadequate report. (Id. at pp. 1379-1380.) Here, parents do not claim counsel was ineffective, nor could they. The record clearly demonstrates mother's counsel had a tactical decision to defeat grandparents' petition on the theory grandparents did not prove it was in minor's best interest to be freed from parental custody and control. (People v. Hinton (2006) 37 Cal.4th 839, 876 [we defer to counsel's reasonable tactical decisions when assessing an ineffective assistance of counsel claim].)