Juvenile Crimes

Your Child Has a Right to Speak With a Lawyer First

Under California law, a minor 17 or under must consult with legal counsel before waiving their Miranda rights. That consultation cannot be waived — not by your child, and not by you.

If police want to question your child right now:

• Say clearly that your child will not answer questions without an attorney
• You are not obligated to make your child available for an interview
• This applies at the police station, at school, and at home

Call (949) 758-4469.

Juvenile Court Is Not Adult Court

The differences matter, and most parents don’t know them.

A sustained petition is not a criminal conviction. Your child can generally answer “no” to questions about criminal convictions, and the record — once sealed — is treated as though the arrest never occurred for most purposes.

Under Welfare & Institutions Code § 602, a minor who violates a criminal law may be declared a ward of the court, which places them under the court’s supervision.

What Happens After an Arrest

Detention or release. Many minors are released to their parents. Where a child is detained, a detention hearing follows promptly, and that’s where release is argued.

Intake. A probation officer reviews the case and can recommend informal handling, diversion, or the filing of a petition. This stage is frequently where a case is resolved without a petition ever being filed — and it’s the stage most parents don’t know exists.

Petition filed. If the District Attorney files, the case proceeds in delinquency court.

Jurisdiction hearing. The equivalent of a trial. A judge decides whether the allegations are true. There is no jury.

Disposition hearing. If the petition is sustained, the court determines the outcome — which may include informal or formal probation, counseling, community service, programs, or in serious cases placement or commitment.

Diversion — How Most Cases Should End

California juvenile law offers several paths that avoid a sustained petition entirely.

Informal supervision — WIC § 654. Before a petition is filed, probation can place a minor under informal supervision with conditions. Complete it, and no petition is filed.

Deferred entry of judgment — WIC § 790. For eligible first-time felony offenses, the minor admits the allegation, completes a program, and the case is dismissed on successful completion.

Court-ordered informal probation — WIC § 725. The court places the minor on probation without declaring wardship. Complete it, and the petition is dismissed.

Community-based diversion. Many jurisdictions offer programs addressing specific issues — substance use, theft, anger management, school conflict — that resolve cases outside the formal process.

Eligibility depends on the offense, the child’s history, and how the case is presented at intake. That presentation is where an attorney does the most valuable work in a typical juvenile case.

Can My Child Be Tried as an Adult?

This is the question parents ask first. The answer is much more protective than it was a decade ago.

Prosecutors Can No Longer Decide This Alone

Before Proposition 57 (2016), a prosecutor could file directly in adult court. That is no longer permitted. Transfer now requires a judicial transfer hearing, where a judge decides after hearing from both sides — and the defense participates fully.

There Is a Minimum Age

Under Senate Bill 1391 (2018), a minor who was 14 or 15 at the time of the alleged offense generally cannot be transferred to adult court. The minimum age for transfer is 16.

What a Judge Considers

At a transfer hearing, the court weighs:

• The minor’s degree of criminal sophistication
• Whether the minor can be rehabilitated before juvenile jurisdiction ends
• The minor’s prior delinquent history
• The success of previous attempts at rehabilitation
• The circumstances and gravity of the alleged offense

A transfer hearing is a contested proceeding, and it is one of the most consequential hearings in juvenile law. It requires psychological evaluation, expert testimony, school and family records, and a developed presentation about who the child actually is.

Common Juvenile Charges

• Assault and battery, including school fights
• Theft, shoplifting, and burglary
• Drug possession and sales
• Vandalism and graffiti
• Weapons offenses, including on school grounds
• DUI and other driving offenses
• Sexting and related offenses involving phones and social media
• Trespass and curfew violations
• Robbery

Cases arising at school carry a second track — school discipline, suspension, or expulsion proceedings — that runs parallel to the court case and has its own timeline and its own consequences.

Protecting Your Child’s Record

This is what parents are most worried about, and the news is better than most expect.

Sealing Under WIC § 786

When a minor satisfactorily completes probation or a diversion program, the court is directed to dismiss the petition and seal the records. Once sealed, the arrest and proceedings are deemed never to have occurred for most purposes, and the minor can lawfully say they did not occur.

Sealing Under WIC § 781

For cases that don’t qualify for automatic sealing, a petition to seal can be filed later — generally once the person has reached a qualifying age and has remained free of specified convictions.

Where Consequences Can Still Reach

Being straightforward matters here:

• Certain serious offenses are excluded from sealing
• Immigration consequences can attach to juvenile adjudications in some circumstances — if your child is not a U.S. citizen, raise this immediately
• Some professional licensing applications ask questions that reach further than employment applications
• Sex offense registration applies in limited circumstances
• Military enlistment questions can reach sealed records

Why Early Representation Matters Most in Juvenile Cases

In adult cases, an attorney retained after charges are filed still has substantial room to work. In juvenile cases, the most valuable decisions happen earlier — often before a petition exists.

An attorney involved at intake can:

• Prevent a petition from being filed at all
• Present the case for informal supervision or diversion
• Provide the probation officer with context a police report doesn’t contain — school performance, family circumstances, what was actually happening
• Argue for release at a detention hearing
• Coordinate the school discipline case alongside the court case
• Position the case for sealing from the outset

By the time a petition is filed, several of those options have narrowed.

Why a Former Prosecutor Matters

Juvenile cases turn on discretion more than almost any other area. A probation officer decides what to recommend. A prosecutor decides whether to file, what to file, and whether to seek transfer. Those decisions get made early, quickly, and on limited information.

Polina Logrue worked inside the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. She knows what makes a case look like one that belongs in diversion rather than in court, what information actually changes a filing recommendation, and how the office approaches transfer decisions.

She also knows that what a police report says about a 15-year-old and what is actually true about that 15-year-old are frequently different documents — and that someone has to put the second one in front of the people making decisions.

CTA: Meet Polina →

Your Child Was Arrested. Do This Now.

1. Tell your child to say nothing about the incident — to police, to school officials, to friends, or on their phone.
2. Invoke the right to counsel. A minor 17 or under must consult with an attorney before any Miranda waiver, and that right cannot be waived by you or by them.
3. Do not let your child be interviewed without an attorney, at the station or at school.
4. Preserve their phone. Don’t delete anything. Don’t let them delete anything.
5. Write down what happened from your child’s account, and keep it for the attorney only.
6. Gather school records — grades, attendance, activities, letters from teachers. These matter enormously at intake and at disposition.
7. Ask whether a school discipline process has started, and note any deadlines.
8. Call before the intake interview with probation, if one hasn’t happened yet.

Call (949) 758-4469 · Free Consultation

Related Matters

• Drug Crimes — juvenile drug offenses and diversion
• Theft & Property Crimes — including shoplifting
• Assault & Battery — including school incidents
• Gun Charges — weapons on school grounds
• Gang Crimes — gang allegations against minors carry distinct consequences
• DUI Defense — underage DUI and zero tolerance