After a police stop in New Jersey: Family Part, waiver at 15, and clearing a juvenile record

Most delinquency cases are heard in family court, which in New Jersey is the Family Part of the Superior Court. Some are held in municipal court. Many small cases never reach a judge. They go to a juvenile conference committee or an intake services conference, where the problem is talked through informally.

A parent or guardian must attend these meetings and every hearing. If the case goes before a judge, the young person must have a lawyer. That rule traces to In re Gault (1967), where the Supreme Court held that a child facing a delinquency case that could lead to being locked up has the right to a lawyer, including a free one if the family cannot pay, and the right not to be forced to incriminate himself.

Moving a case from the Family Part to adult criminal court is called waiver. A 2015 law, which took effect in March 2016, ended waiver for 14-year-olds, so the youngest age for waiver in New Jersey is now 15. It also narrowed the list of offenses that can be waived and gave prosecutors 60 days to file a waiver motion.

The same law, according to a New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission report, presumes that a waived young person sentenced to incarceration will serve that time in a juvenile facility until age 21, and will wait for trial in juvenile detention rather than an adult county jail. A judge can deny waiver if the prosecutor clearly abused their discretion.

Many people assume a juvenile record vanishes at 18. In New Jersey you usually have to ask. Expungement means a court order that removes a record from public view. The New Jersey Courts say that for most juvenile adjudications, you wait three years after your final discharge from custody or supervision, with no new arrests, charges, convictions, or adjudications in that time.

Filing through the eCourts Expungement System is free. For a juvenile case, contact the court first to get your docket number, the number that identifies the case.