If your child has been arrested, he or she can either be cited and released or detained at a juvenile detention facility. If your child is in custody, the District Attorney must file the petition within 48 hours of the time the minor is detained excluding weekends and holidays. The law requires strict compliance, otherwise the minor is entitled to be released while his case is pending. Mr. Kita recently filed a writ of habeus corpus on this issue and the Second District Court of Appeal ordered a juvenile court judge to release a minor on a overdetained case.

JUVENILE DETENTION HEARING

If your child is in custody, his or her first court date is called a detention hearing. At the detention hearing the juvenile referee or juvenile judge will make a determination on whether to continue to detain your child pending adjudication of the charges. The juvenile referee or juvenile judge will have input from the juvenile probation department, as well as from the juvenile deputy district attorney and juvenile defense attorney.

The criteria used by most juvenile judges on whether to continue to detain your child pending adjudication are as follows:

1. It is reasonably necessary for the protection of the person or property of another that your child be detained.
2. It's a matter of immediate and urgent  necessity for the protection of your child that he or she be detained.
3. Whether your child is a flight risk and will not appear in court.
4. Whether your child has violated a prior court order.

At the juvenile detention hearing your child's attorney will enter a plea admitting or denying the petition. Most attorneys will deny the petition pending evaluation of the states case.

If your child is detained, he or she has a right to a speedy trial to take place within 15 court days of the arraignment. If your child is not in custody, the speedy trial requires an adjudication date within 30 calendar days.

JUVENILE  ARRAIGNMENT DATE

If your child is not in custody, his first court date is called an arraignment. Your child's attorney will often enter a denial of the petition and set a pretrial and a court date.

JUVENILE PRETRIAL DATE

The pretrial date is set up so the attorneys of both parties can discuss a possible resolution to the case and to discuss other outstanding discovery issues. If your child is in custody, this must be set up the week following the arraignment unless time is waived. In other words the pretrial date or even the court trial date, can be set at a much later date if your child's attorney and your child agree to a later date. If your child is not in custody, his/her pretrial must generally be scheduled two to three weeks after the arraignment unless time is waived. Many juvenile judges participate in a discussion of a resolution though a private conference in the judges chambers.

JUVENILE COURT TRIAL / JUVENILE COURT ADJUDICATION

When a juvenile judge sets the case for "adjudication," he or she is setting it for a trial. Unlike adult court, your child is not entitled to a jury trial. In lieu of twelve jurors, the juvenile court trials are done by a judge or commissioner who acts as both judge and trier of fact. Therefore it is very important that you have a lawyer that is familiar with the juvenile court proceedings and the juvenile court judges. Under penal code 170.6 your child has a right to an unbiased judge. Your child has to challenge the judges impartiality immediately otherwise he or she can be deemed to have waived that right. Only an experienced juvenile attorney will know which juvenile judges or juvenile commissioners are fair.

The Law Offices of George Kita can help make sure that your child's rights are protected to get the best legal result possible.  Call for a FREE consultation at (626) 975-2080 or email at juvylawyer@aol.com