San Diego Juvenile Defense Attorney

If your child has been arrested in San Diego County, you are dealing with a separate court system that uses different words, different deadlines and different rules than the adult courts most people have heard of. A San Diego juvenile defense attorney works inside that system, where the District Attorney files a petition rather than a criminal complaint, a judge rather than a jury decides the facts, and the stated purpose of the process is rehabilitation.

Marc S. Kohnen has defended clients in San Diego County since 2008, including minors facing petitions in juvenile court. The rehabilitative purpose is written into Welfare and Institutions Code section 202, and it is real, but it does not make the outcome automatic. Minors in San Diego are still detained before their hearings, still removed from the home at disposition, still committed to secure facilities, and in the most serious cases still transferred to adult court.

The most useful thing a parent can do is call before the petition is filed. Much of what can still be changed, whether probation handles the matter informally, whether the District Attorney files at all, and whether your child comes home the same day, is decided in the first days after an arrest.

How San Diego Juvenile Court Is Different From Adult Court

Delinquency cases, meaning cases where a minor is accused of conduct that would be a crime for an adult, are filed under Welfare and Institutions Code section 602. They are separate from dependency cases under section 300, which involve alleged abuse or neglect by a parent and follow a different process. Both are heard in the same San Diego building, which confuses families walking in for the first time.

Section 202 states that the purpose of juvenile court law is to provide care, treatment and guidance consistent with the interests of the minor and the protection of the public. In practice that means the court has tools an adult court does not have, including counseling orders, school conditions, curfews and treatment programs, and it means the disposition is meant to fit the child and not the offense alone.

There is no jury in California juvenile court. A judge hears the evidence and decides. The prosecution still has to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, and your child still has the right to counsel, the right to remain silent, and the right to confront and cross examine witnesses. What is absent is twelve people from the community, which puts more weight on how the case is presented to a single judicial officer.

There is also no bail in juvenile court. A minor is either released to a parent or guardian or held in custody, and probation makes that call first, then the judge at the detention hearing. Money does not change it. A plan the court can rely on does: where the child will live, who supervises, what school looks like, and what treatment is already arranged.

The Words Juvenile Court Uses

The vocabulary is different, and it matters, because parents often assume the worst based on words the court is not actually using.

• A petition, not a charge or a complaint. The District Attorney files a petition alleging that the minor comes within section 602.
• A true finding, not a conviction. If the judge sustains the petition, the allegation is found true.
• A jurisdictional hearing, also called an adjudication, not a trial. This is where the evidence is heard.
• A disposition hearing, not a sentencing. This is where the judge decides what happens next.
• A ward of the court, not a defendant or an inmate. Wardship means the court takes on responsibility for the minor's care and supervision.
• A commitment or a placement, not a jail or prison term.

None of this is cosmetic. A true finding is not a criminal conviction, and in most settings a young person can accurately say they have not been convicted of a crime. It still creates a juvenile record, and in narrow circumstances it can still be used against them years later.

Juvenile Charges Marc Defends in San Diego

Juvenile court covers the same conduct the adult courts do, from citation level offenses to homicide. The petitions that come up most often for San Diego teenagers are ordinary ones:

• Theft and shoplifting, including retail theft from malls and beach area stores
• Vandalism, graffiti and tagging
• Fighting, assault and battery, frequently reported from a school campus
• Drug possession, including cannabis, vape cartridges and prescription pills
• Underage drinking and minor in possession
• Underage DUI, where Vehicle Code section 23136 sets a zero tolerance limit of 0.01 percent blood alcohol for drivers under 21
• Sexting and related offenses, including images shared between teenagers
• Weapons on school grounds, including knives and replica firearms
• Curfew violations and truancy
• Burglary, robbery and vehicle theft
• Sex offenses, which carry consequences that reach well past juvenile court

Age matters at the entry point as well. California limits juvenile court jurisdiction over very young children, and a child under 12 generally cannot be made a ward except for a short list of the most serious offenses. Below that line the matter goes to the family and to county services rather than to a courtroom.

How a San Diego Juvenile Case Moves Through the Court

Arrest or citation. A San Diego police officer, a sheriff's deputy or a school resource officer either releases the minor to a parent with a notice to appear or takes the minor into custody. Officers have discretion at this stage, and what they hear in the first hour often decides which way it goes.

Intake. Probation reviews the referral and decides whether to release the minor, handle the matter informally, or refer it to the District Attorney's juvenile division for a petition. This is the quietest and most important stage of the case. A lawyer retained here can deliver school records, counseling enrollment, restitution and an account of the incident before anyone commits to filing.

Detention. Under Welfare and Institutions Code section 631, a minor taken into custody must be released within 48 hours, excluding non-court days, unless a petition is filed within that time. Under section 632, once a petition is filed the minor must be brought before the juvenile court for a detention hearing before the end of the next judicial day, and where the allegation is a misdemeanor that does not involve violence, a threat of violence or a weapon and the minor is not on probation or parole, the hearing has to occur no later than 48 hours after the minor was taken into custody, again excluding non-court days. The question at that hearing is release, not guilt.

The jurisdictional hearing. Under Welfare and Institutions Code section 657, the petition of a detained minor is set for hearing within 15 judicial days of the order directing detention, and a minor who is not detained is set within 30 days. At the hearing the District Attorney presents evidence and the judge decides whether the allegations are true beyond a reasonable doubt.

The disposition hearing. If the petition is sustained, the court decides what happens next. Probation prepares a social study and a recommendation covering school, home, treatment history and prior contacts. Disposition is where most juvenile cases are actually decided, because the range of outcomes is wide and the court weighs the minor's circumstances, not only the offense.

Where San Diego Juvenile Cases Are Heard

Juvenile delinquency cases in San Diego County are heard at the Juvenile Court in Kearny Mesa, at 2851 Meadow Lark Drive. The same courthouse handles dependency, adoption and emancipation matters, so the families in the hallway with you may be there for entirely different reasons.

Juvenile detention in the county is operated by the Probation Department, at the Youth Transition Campus in Kearny Mesa and the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility in Otay Mesa. Which facility a minor is held in, and for how long, depends on booking practice, age, the allegation and the court's orders. Schooling inside the facilities runs through the County Office of Education, and a detained student's credits are worth asking about early.

The San Diego County District Attorney's juvenile division prosecutes delinquency petitions. The Public Defender represents most minors and the office does serious work, but caseloads are heavy, and a family that retains private counsel gets a lawyer whose attention is not divided across a large calendar. Either way, your child is entitled to a lawyer, and no minor should appear in juvenile court without one.

Diversion and Informal Handling: Keeping the Case Out of Court

The outcomes families care about most, no petition, no true finding and no record, usually come from the informal side of the system rather than from a contested hearing. California gives probation and the court several ways to resolve a case without a wardship:

• Informal supervision by probation under Welfare and Institutions Code section 654, before any petition is filed. The minor is supervised for a set period, commonly six months, and if the program is completed no petition is filed.
• Court ordered informal supervision under section 654.2, after a petition has been filed. The case is put on hold while the minor completes a program, and on satisfactory completion the petition is dismissed.
• Probation without wardship under section 725(a). The court sustains the petition but places the minor on probation for up to six months without adjudging the minor a ward, and the petition can be dismissed at the end of it.
• Teen court, restorative justice conferencing and community based diversion run through schools, the District Attorney's office and local agencies.

Eligibility turns on the seriousness of the allegation, the minor's history, and whether restitution has been addressed. It also turns on how the family is presented. Counseling or a class started before the first hearing, proof of school attendance, and restitution already paid are what move a case from the formal track to the informal one, and they carry far more weight when they are done than when they are promised.

Those are the requests Marc makes first: diversion where the minor qualifies, probation at home rather than detention where it is not, counseling, mentorship and community service in place of custody, and reduction or dismissal of allegations the evidence does not support.

What a Judge Can Order at Disposition

Dispositions run on a ladder, and the court is expected to use the least restrictive option that fits the case. In rough order of severity:

• Dismissal of the petition
• Informal probation or probation without wardship, with the petition dismissed on completion
• Formal probation at home, with conditions such as school attendance, curfew, counseling, drug testing, community service, restitution and search terms
• Placement outside the home with a relative, in a foster home, or in a short term residential therapeutic program
• A county commitment to a juvenile camp, ranch or short term program
• Commitment to a secure youth treatment facility under Welfare and Institutions Code section 875, reserved for the most serious offenses

Fines and restitution to the victim can accompany any of these, and the court can also order an apology letter, a class, or counseling for the family as a condition of probation.

The top of that ladder changed recently. California realigned the state Division of Juvenile Justice under Senate Bill 823 (2020) and Senate Bill 92 (2021). DJJ stopped taking new commitments in 2021 and closed on June 30, 2023, and counties including San Diego are now responsible for the youth who once went to the state. Those commitments are made under section 875, they are available only for wards 14 and older whose most recent adjudicated offense is listed in section 707(b), and the court sets a baseline term of confinement and reviews progress at regular hearings.

Juvenile court jurisdiction also does not last forever. For most wards it ends at 21. For an offense listed in section 707(b) it can run to 23, and to 25 where the adult sentence would have been seven years or more. That matters, because a disposition is measured against how much time the court has left to work with, which is also an argument at a transfer hearing.

When a Minor Can Be Transferred to Adult Court

Before 2016, a California prosecutor could file a case against a minor directly in adult court. Proposition 57, passed by the voters in November 2016, ended direct filing. The only route now runs through a judge: the District Attorney has to move for transfer, and the juvenile court holds a transfer hearing under Welfare and Institutions Code section 707.

Transfer is limited by age and offense. In general it is available for a minor who was 16 or older at the time of the alleged felony. For minors who were 14 or 15, California has withdrawn transfer in nearly every situation, with a narrow exception for a person who was not apprehended before juvenile court jurisdiction ended. Age at the time of the alleged offense, not age at the time of the hearing, is what counts.

At the hearing the burden is on the prosecution, and the standard of proof is clear and convincing evidence that the minor is not amenable to rehabilitation while under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. The court weighs five statutory criteria:

• The degree of criminal sophistication shown by the minor
• Whether the minor can be rehabilitated before juvenile court jurisdiction expires
• The minor's previous delinquent history
• The success of previous attempts by the juvenile court to rehabilitate the minor
• The circumstances and gravity of the alleged offense

A transfer hearing is a full evidentiary proceeding and usually the most consequential hearing in a juvenile case. The defense work resembles sentencing work in a serious felony: psychological evaluation, developmental and trauma history, school and medical records, family witnesses, and testimony on adolescent development and on what a juvenile disposition could accomplish in the time the court has. The difference between a section 875 commitment and a state prison term is decided there.

Sealing a Juvenile Record in California

Juvenile records are confidential, but confidential is not the same as gone. They exist at the court, at probation, at the arresting agency and sometimes at the school, and they can surface later in ways families do not expect.

Welfare and Institutions Code section 786 is the more common route. When a minor satisfactorily completes a term of probation or informal supervision, the court is required to dismiss the petition and seal the records of the case. It is meant to happen at the close of a successful term without a separate application, although it is worth confirming the order was made and served on each agency holding a copy.

Welfare and Institutions Code section 781 is the petition route, used where section 786 does not apply, for example where probation was not completed satisfactorily or where the case ended some other way. It generally requires waiting until the minor turns 18 or until five years have passed since the case closed, and it requires the court to find that the person has been rehabilitated.

The limits matter. Section 786 sealing is not available for an offense listed in section 707(b) committed at 14 or older unless the finding was dismissed or reduced, and a section 781 petition for one of those offenses can be filed only on the later terms that statute sets. A sealed adjudication can still count as a strike in a later adult case. A record carrying a registration requirement under Penal Code section 290.008 cannot be sealed at all, and sealing does not undo a Department of Motor Vehicles action or erase records federal immigration authorities already hold. Those limits are reasons to shape a case at the front end rather than rely on cleanup afterward.

Consequences That Outlast Juvenile Court

Parents are often told that juvenile court does not follow a child. That is mostly true and occasionally very wrong. The exceptions are specific and worth knowing before anything is admitted:

• Strikes. Under Penal Code section 667(d)(3), a juvenile adjudication counts as a strike prior in a later adult case if the minor was 16 or older at the time of the offense, the offense is listed in Welfare and Institutions Code section 707(b) and qualifies as serious or violent, the minor was found fit for juvenile court, and the minor was adjudged a ward for that offense. A true finding at 16 can double a sentence decades later.
• Immigration. A juvenile adjudication is not a criminal conviction for immigration purposes, which is a meaningful protection, but conduct, admissions and findings from juvenile court can still affect a green card, DACA, asylum and naturalization, and custody can bring a young person to the attention of federal authorities. Any minor who is not a United States citizen needs the immigration question answered before anything is admitted.
• Sex offender registration. Registration is not ordered in the ordinary juvenile case. Penal Code section 290.008 tied a juvenile registration duty to discharge from the state Division of Juvenile Justice, which closed in 2023 without that statute being rewritten, so the live registration exposure in a serious sex offense case now runs through transfer to adult court, which is one reason those petitions are handled differently from the first day.
• School discipline. Suspension and expulsion run on a separate track under the Education Code, on a separate and often faster timeline. A school can proceed whether or not the petition is sustained, and a statement made at a school hearing can end up in the court file.
• Driver's license. For certain driving offenses involving alcohol or drugs, including a violation of the zero tolerance rule in Vehicle Code section 23136, the court must suspend or delay driving privileges for a year for anyone aged 13 to 20. A drug offense that does not involve driving no longer carries that consequence, because the section that once imposed it was repealed effective January 1, 2020. The Department of Motor Vehicles also acts independently of the juvenile court.
• Background checks. Military enlistment, some professional licenses, and some housing and employment applications ask questions broad enough to reach a juvenile matter.

What Parents Should Do in the First 48 Hours

Your child has the right to remain silent, and you cannot waive it for them. Parents regularly do the opposite out of instinct, telling a child to cooperate and explain, and the explanation becomes the case. Officers may record what is said, and a minor's account of a fight or a party is often the strongest evidence the prosecution has.

California law helps here. Welfare and Institutions Code section 625.6 requires a minor under 18 to consult with legal counsel before a custodial interrogation and before waiving Miranda rights, and that consultation cannot be waived by the minor, a parent or a guardian. The Court of Appeal's decision in In re Elias V. examined the interrogation techniques used on young people and the reliability of what they produce. If an interview has already happened, that is a reason to call a lawyer immediately, not a reason to give up.

Practical steps in the first two days:

• State clearly that your child will not answer questions and wants a lawyer, then stop talking, including on recorded calls from a detention facility
• Do not let a school resource officer, a campus administrator or a detective interview your child without counsel, on or off campus
• Write down names, times and what you were told, while it is fresh
• Preserve phones, messages and photographs, and delete nothing, because deleting can become its own offense
• Find out whether a petition has been filed and whether a detention hearing has been set
• Call a lawyer before the intake decision, because that is the stage where diversion is won

How Marc Kohnen Handles a San Diego Juvenile Case

Marc reviews every case personally. In a juvenile matter that begins with the questions that control the next two days: whether your child is in custody, whether a petition has been filed, whether a detention hearing is set, whether your child was interviewed, and what school looks like right now.

From there the work runs on two tracks. One is the evidence: the reports, the body camera footage, the campus video, the witnesses, the phone records and the search that produced whatever was found. The other is the picture of your child the prosecutor and the judge will see, built from school records, counseling, letters, work and family structure. That second track shapes how a case is treated long before anyone argues the facts, and it is the part families can still influence.

Where the evidence supports it, the goal is dismissal or a contested hearing. Where it does not, the goal is to keep the case on the informal track, out of custody, out of placement and sealed at the end, so a teenager's mistake does not become a permanent record. Marc has taken cases to trial and resolved many more before a hearing was needed. Every case is different and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

The Law Office of Marc S. Kohnen is at 425 Tenth Avenue in downtown San Diego, 92101. Marc has defended San Diego since 2008 and is a member of the State Bar of California, #255303. He is available 24 hours a day at (619) 398-2500, and the first consultation is free and confidential. A parent, grandparent or family friend can make that call on the child's behalf.

Questions Parents Ask About San Diego Juvenile Court