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In re John M.12/1/1999
to the juvenile's delinquent acts. Thus, an award for counseling expenses already incurred was appropriate, but not the award for the then future counseling expenses.
On remand the juvenile court should determine, in light of the victims' current counseling progress and their prospects for further counseling, the amount and structure for any future restitution award for counseling expenses John M. has caused the victims to incur. We note, without deciding, that the court has the authority to continue a restitution hearing for "good cause" and that continuance for the presentation of ongoing counseling expenses in a situation such as this may be appropriate. In fashioning the restitution award, the court should award counseling expenses that have been incurred, and the court must preserve to John M. and his mother the ability to challenge the reasonableness of the expenditures and the causal connection to John M.'s delinquent acts.
II. and V.
John M. and his mother both argue that their "due process rights were violated by the lack of notice of the amounts demanded as restitution by the victims." John M. concedes that he had notice of the claim for restitution for $5,795 in counseling fees for sessions that occurred before the autumn of 1997. John M. contends, however, that he was not notified until December 19, 1997 of the additional amounts requested by the State as restitution, and that he was therefore unable to prepare a defense to those claims. Regarding his mother, John M. quotes the former ยง 807(m)(3), which provided that "a court may not enter an order of restitution against a parent under this section unless the parent has been afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard and present appropriate evidence on the parent's behalf."
Due process requires that a juvenile receive notice of the restitution being claimed and a reasonable opportunity to present evidence relating to the issue. In Re James B., 54 Md. App. 270, 278, 458 A.2d 847 (1983). In James B., we held that due process was denied when the juvenile had notice that the State would attempt to prove damages of $331.55, but did not know until the day of the hearing that an additional $120 of damages was being sought. We remanded the case for another evidentiary hearing to allow James B. to challenge the inclusion of the $120 in the restitution order. John M.'s situation is different. The Juvenile Court ruled on August 25, 1997, that each delinquent act would be treated as one incident, and the court remarked that the statutory limit of restitution was $10,000 per incident. Therefore, it was apparent that John M. and his mother potentially were liable for up to $80,000. The court then asked the parties if they would be willing to proceed immediately to determine the actual amount of restitution, and John M.'s counsel, after consulting with John M., stated on the record: "Your honor, we think it would be appropriate to postpone the remainder of the restitution hearing."
At the direction of the court, the State sent letters to John M. on October 17, 1997, laying out the expected content of the testimony of the State's witnesses regarding the victims' future counseling needs and detailing the projected costs of the counseling, with a combined projection for the two girls of $33,440. At the beginning of the December 19, 1997 hearing John M.'s counsel moved to dismiss the State's request for restitution, and listed as one of the grounds that John M. did not know how much the State was seeking. The State reminded the court that restitution had been extensively discussed at the previous hearings and that the State had notified John M. and his mother several times that it would be seeking restitution
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