Can My Child’s Juvenile Records Be Sealed?

Juvenile delinquency proceedings are generally considered sealed to the degree that they are not considered criminal convictions. A potential lawyer cannot go into family court to research whether this particular person was found to be a juvenile delinquent. There is no possible way they are going to allow you access to any such records. They are not considered public records. There are ways, however, that a youth can come back and seek sealing of even juvenile delinquency records, such that they would not be viewed even by law enforcement.

Can A Juvenile Court Record Be Used Against My Child As An Adult?

If it’s not sealed, law enforcement or the adult criminal court has the ability to check whether a particular person has been convicted of a prior crime, as a juvenile. If, as a child, someone was convicted of armed robbery and adjudged a juvenile delinquent and then three years later, the person commits an act of armed robbery, the judge in the adult court can check non-sealed juvenile delinquency records.

Will My Child Ever Be Tried In Adult Court?

In theory, any youth convicted of certain crimes over the age of 13 can be tried in adult criminal court. Such cases are extremely rare but as the youth gets older, it becomes more likely that they will be tried as an adult. However, the strong preference of the new Raise the Age legislation is to have any juvenile below the age of 18 tried in family court.

Additional Information On Juvenile Delinquency Cases In New York

You want to make sure that if you are shopping around for an attorney, the attorney has specific experience handling juvenile delinquency cases in family court. Most criminal defense attorneys operate in adult criminal court and do not have any experience doing a juvenile delinquency cases in family court.

There are key distinctions between the two proceedings. If the attorney doesn’t have a lot of experience doing juvenile delinquency proceedings in family court, they may find that there are a lot of things that they are unsure of because they don’t know the distinctions of the law between one court and the other. Don’t hesitate to ask any criminal defense attorney how many juvenile delinquency cases they have handled in family court.

For more information on Sealing Of Juvenile Records In New York, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (347) 797-1188 | (914) 362-3080 today.