When your child
is accused.
No jury, no guilty verdict, and a stated goal of rehabilitation — which lulls families into treating it as less serious than it is.
A delinquency case,
from referral to disposition.
Contact and referral
Police cite your child at school or in the field and send a referral to probation. Your child may be released to you the same day — which can feel like the end of it, and almost never is.
Probation intake
Probation interviews the child and family and recommends one of three paths: close the referral, handle it informally, or send it to the District Attorney for a petition. This meeting shapes everything that follows, and families routinely attend it without counsel.
Petition filed
The District Attorney files a petition alleging the offense. This is the juvenile equivalent of charges — and the point at which informal resolutions become harder, though not impossible, to reach.
Detention hearing
If your child is in custody, the court decides within roughly 48 hours whether they stay in juvenile hall or come home while the case proceeds. Bring a concrete plan: school attendance, supervision, counseling, and who is home when.
Pretrial and negotiation
Discovery is exchanged and motions are heard. Most petitions resolve here — through dismissal, reduction, deferred entry of judgment, or an admission to a lesser count with terms the family can actually complete.
Jurisdiction hearing
The juvenile trial. A judge — never a jury — decides whether the allegations are true beyond a reasonable doubt. The rules of evidence apply, witnesses are cross-examined, and the outcome is a finding, not a verdict.
Disposition
Sentencing, in juvenile terms: informal or formal probation, terms and conditions, counseling, restitution, camp, or out-of-home placement. This is where a well-documented picture of your child — school, treatment, family support — does the most work.
Before anyone talks to your child
A minor cannot waive Miranda without consulting counsel.
California law requires that a youth under 18 consult with an attorney — in person, by phone, or by video — before waiving the right to silence or to counsel. That consultation cannot be waived by the child or by the parent.
Your presence does not protect your child.
Parents are not covered by any privilege. What your child says in front of you can be repeated in court by an officer who was in the room.
Say the words clearly.
State that your child is invoking their rights and that counsel must be consulted first — then stop.
Keeping it out of court
Most first referrals do not need to become petitions.
Informal probation, community programs, restorative justice, and teen or peer court can resolve a case with no sustained petition at all.
The widest options exist before filing.
Those exits are broadest at the very beginning — which is exactly when most families are still deciding whether to call a lawyer.
Probation intake shapes everything.
Probation interviews the child and family and recommends closing the referral, handling it informally, or sending it to the District Attorney. Families routinely attend that meeting without counsel.
Transfer to adult court
Only 16 and older.
California permits transfer only for youth 16 or older at the time of the offense, and only after a hearing.
The prosecution carries the burden.
The District Attorney must persuade the judge, by clear and convincing evidence, that the child is not amenable to rehabilitation within the juvenile system.
These turn on evaluation and mitigation.
Expert assessment, school and treatment records, and a developed picture of the child do more work here than legal argument. They are the highest-stakes proceedings in juvenile law.
The Welfare & Institutions Code provisions that govern a delinquency case.
Authorities current as of 2025. Law changes; nothing here is a substitute for advice on your own facts.
Before the petition is filed.
In juvenile law, the widest set of options exists at the very beginning — at intake, before an interview, before anything is signed. Bring us the situation as it stands and we'll map what happens next.
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