29A-5-308. Notice of hearing for protected person.

Upon the filing of the petition and evaluation report, the court shall promptly issue a notice fixing the date, hour, and location for a hearing to take place within sixty days.

The person alleged to need protection shall be personally served with the notice, a copy of the petition, and the evaluation report not less than fourteen days before the hearing. The person alleged to need protection may not waive notice, and a failure to properly notify the person alleged to need protection shall be jurisdictional.

A copy of the notice, together with a copy of the petition, shall be mailed by the petitioner at least fourteen days before the hearing to all entities and individuals age ten or older whose names and post office addresses appear in the petition.

The notice shall include a brief statement of the nature, purpose, and legal effect of the appointment of a guardian or conservator, and shall inform the person alleged to need protection of the right to appear at the hearing and to object to the proposed appointment.

If the basis of the petition is that the person alleged to need protection is an absentee, at least fourteen days before the hearing the petitioner shall mail a copy of the notice and petition to the alleged absentee at his or her last known post office address. The petitioner shall also publish a copy of the notice at least once a week for three consecutive weeks in a legal newspaper in the county in which the proceeding is pending, the last publication to occur at least ten days before the hearing.

Source: SL 1993, ch 213, § 36; SDCL 30-36-36; SL 1995, ch 167, § 181.