Relinquishment and appeal

 Yesterday on Stack Exchange a woman asked about her proceedings in Kansas family court:

"My attorney told m[e] that if I relinquish my rights to[ m]y children I would have 5 years to appeal my case. Is that true?"

Her post got closed under the pretext that it asks for specific legal advice. Although she provided no context, the question warrants two remarks.

The first remark is that appealing one's own relinquishment makes no sense. The Black's Law Dictionary defines relinquishment as "abandoning, renouncing, or giving over a right". The purpose of filing an appeal is to have an adverse ruling reversed. The term adverse implies appellant's disagreement with, and opposition to, the ruling. By renouncing or abandoning a right, that party conveys that she is not opposed to the ruling. Accordingly, relinquishing a right forfeits the grounds for appeal.

The other remark is in regard to the deadline for filing a notice of appeal. KSA 60-2013 provides that a party may file an appeal only within 30 days from the entry of the judgment from a district court. Depending on the status of the district magistrate judge, the deadline might be 14 days. Even if there is some special statute specific to family court, a deadline of 5 years seems very unlikely, more so where a children custody is at stake.

It would be pointless to speculate whether her attorney did a terrible job outlining her options or she just misunderstood the attorney. One just can't appeal, let alone belatedly, a court ruling that stems from one's own relinquishment.

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