Child Standing to Appeal Child Protection Order

The appeal court considered whether a minor child had standing to appeal an administrative order establishing child protective measures, following the mother's appeal where she also purported to act on the child's behalf. The court reasoned that in child protection law, unlike in divorce proceedings, the child lacks independent party status because only the party whose legal interests are directly affected by the order (in this case, the parent with custody) possesses standing to appeal; the child's opinion was already considered through mandated consultation, and because the child's interests might diverge from the mother's, the child could not be represented by the mother in a separate capacity, thus affirming the lower authority's decision to recognize only the mother as a party to the administrative appeal.