Juvenile Court Cases

Seattle Lawyers Defending Minors Against Criminal Charges

Every year, millions of young people are called into a local juvenile court. In Washington, the public can look at the physical and electronic records of a juvenile’s encounter with the judicial system, even if the charges against the young person were dismissed or weren’t adjudicated. If you or your child has a juvenile court case on file, the experienced Seattle juvenile law attorneys of Blair Kim Moeller, PLLC can answer your questions and guide you through this stressful process.

Juvenile Court Cases

In Washington, a juvenile court handles cases where a juvenile has been accused of committing an offense. Offenses are any sort of conduct that would have been called a crime had it been committed by an adult. They can be misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors or felonies. Sometimes the prosecutor refers a juvenile to diversion for a low level offense. In other cases, however, an information is filed that requires the juvenile to go to court. The juvenile court also handles civil infractions and traffic infractions such as failing to stop at a red light where the accused is under the age of 16.

Under Washington law, children under age 8 are considered incapable of committing a crime. Those who are 8-12 are presumed incapable of committing a crime, but the presumption can be removed by proving they have enough capacity to understand a criminal act or neglect and to know it was wrong.

In Washington, you have a right to counsel at any critical stage in juvenile court proceedings. In other words, you have a right to counsel in any proceeding where you might be subject to transfer for criminal prosecution or at any stage in the proceeding where you would be in danger of confinement. The court would have to let the minor and their parent, custodian or guardian know about this right. The right to an attorney includes the right to appointment of any necessary experts.

What must be proven and what the penalty will be in a juvenile court case depends on the particular offense. For example, juvenile sex offenders are generally subject to Washington’s state sex offender laws. They can be subject to civil commitment if the court decides they are sexually violent predators. They will face a registration requirement if released to the community. They are prohibited from enrolling in the same school that the victim or the victim’s siblings attend. They are assigned a risk level classification for purposes of community notification by law enforcement, and the assignment is made by representatives from several different agencies. Level 1 sex offenders are those that are considered to pose the least risk to the community. Level 3 sex offenders are those that are believed to present a high risk of re-offense within the community.