California Explores New Protections in Juvenile Cases

By: Wallin & Klarich

Over the next few months, California’s juvenile justice system could undergo a number of important changes that would better protect minors facing criminal charges. Lawmakers have introduced eight bills that are designed to increase the minimum age for minors to face incarceration, provide additional constitutional protections, and prevent minors from facing life sentences without the …

Posted In: Juvenile Offenses
Tagged: Juvenile Criminal Defense Attorneys

How the California Juvenile Justice System Continues to Change

By: Wallin & Klarich

If you’ve ever heard the term “juvenile hall,” you know there is a difference between adult criminal courts and the juvenile justice system. But what really is the difference? Don’t minors convicted of crimes just go to a separate jail for people 18 and under? In the past, minors who committed crimes were often sent …

Posted In: Juvenile Offenses
Tagged: juvenile defense attorneys

Do Minors Have a Right to an Attorney in School Discipline Cases?

By: Wallin & Klarich

Every weekday, you send your children off to school, trusting that they will behave themselves, and if they misbehave, the school’s administration will notify you immediately. What you may not know is that in many cases when a minor is accused of committing a crime, the questioning of the minor begins long before his or …

Posted In: Juvenile Offenses
Tagged: Juvenile Offenses

For what types of crimes can a minor be charged as an adult?

By: Wallin & Klarich

You are a 17-year old high school student. After class, you are hanging out by the basketball court. You notice a freshman student listening to his iPod. You tell him to give you the iPod. When he refuses, you pin him to the ground, take his iPod, and leave the scene. Now you are being …

Posted In: Criminal Defense

New Court Ruling Gives Hope To Juvenile Offenders

By: Wallin & Klarich

When he was 17 years old, Andrew Moffett and an accomplice robbed a supermarket. The parties fled in a stolen car, but they crashed their vehicle and hid in nearby bushes. When police officers approached, Moffett’s accomplice shot at and killed one of the police officers. Both minors were captured; Moffett’s accomplice was tried and …

Posted In: Juvenile Offenses

US Supreme Court Rules Unconstitutional to Sentence Juveniles to Life in Jail without Parole

By: Wallin & Klarich

As reported by the LA Times on January 25, 2012, the United States Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional to sentence any juvenile tried as an adult who is under 18 to a life sentence behind bars with no chance to be released. The court’s majority (a 5-4 vote) found it to be a “cruel and unusual …

Posted In: Juvenile Offenses

JUVENILE CRIMINAL COURT IN CALIFORNIA REVERSES OBSCENITY CONVICTION

By: Wallin & Klarich

M was juvenile attending high school in California who just went through a tough breakup with his ex-girlfriend, S. Following their breakup, M sent two text messages to S . in the first he threatened to come to school with a gun and kill half the school before committing suicide in front of S. In …

Posted In: Juvenile Offenses