Ward of the Court

The phrase "ward of the court" means the court has taken your minor child for rehabilitation rather than punishment. The court takes the duties of your child's supervision and treatment. Some dispositions that the court can place your child in include foster homes, probation, or juvenile probation. As a parent, it is natural to be concerned and ask questions, like whether the delinquency record will affect your child's future and how you can help.

The Pasadena Criminal Attorney can review the case facts and answer your questions. We can also develop an individualized defense strategy that protects your child's rights and future through aggressive legal representation.

Defining Ward of the Court

The phrase "ward of the court" implies that the court assumes responsibility for a minor's treatment and control. When determining whether to make a child a ward, the court considers the following:

The juvenile's age
The severity and the circumstances of the crime that the minor has committed
The juvenile's prior delinquent history

The judge might order that wardship will last until a further court order or for a specified probationary period.

Sometimes, the court might place your child on juvenile probation without the probation department supervising them. The judge will impose the relevant probation terms on the ward.

Most offenses require supervised visitation. The court can place a child on supervised juvenile probation if they committed a WIC 707b crime, possessed controlled substances, or committed burglary.

The judge might require a nonresident ward to return to the custody of their guardians/parents in another nation. Nevertheless, the court will issue the order only if it is in the juvenile's best interests.

The Role of Probation in Juvenile Delinquency

In the adult criminal justice system, the key players in hearings are the prosecution, the defense attorney, and the judge. However, in juvenile delinquency issues, a county probation officer is another significant player.

Here are the various aspects in which the probation department is involved:

The Arrest

When the police apprehend your child for a crime, the initial law enforcement official the child will meet is the probation officer.

Following the arrest, if the law enforcer believes the matter is severe, they will take your child to juvenile hall, where the probation department will interview them. Your child could also remain detained in the juvenile hall if the court believes they are a threat to the community or themselves.

After the interview, the probation department can choose to do any of the following:

Send your child to a suitable placement with a requirement to return later to see the judge or home
Send your child home with a probation program tailored to tackle the root cause of the delinquent conduct (diversion)
Detain the child at the juvenile hall

Adjudication Stage

During the adjudication stage, the probation department will make recommendations on whether the district attorney (D.A.) should bring a petition against your child and recommend whether the child should be tried as a minor within the California juvenile system.

After the Sentencing Hearing

If the court finds the juvenile guilty (sustains their petition), the probation department supervises the child. It applies when the child is sent to a county probation camp or permitted to return home on probation.

Depending on your child's case circumstances, probation terms could include the following:

Compulsory school attendance
Substance abuse or alcohol counseling
Antigang classes
Community service
Stay-away court order
Graffiti removal
Refrain from interacting with specific individuals
Attending an anger management program
Paying restitution

If your child violates their probation terms, the judge could order their apprehension and detention. The judge will schedule a Section 777 court proceeding, during which the prosecution must establish the violation by a preponderance of the evidence.

The judge can give your child a break. However, sometimes the judge can impose more stringent conditions if it is a subsequent violation.

Out-of-Home Placement

It occurs when the court removes your child from your home and orders them to live in a foster home. Sometimes, it is called foster care and could entail placement with the following:

Approved resource families or foster homes
Certified community facilities
Extended family members, approved nonrelatives, or relatives
Group homes

As previously mentioned, wardship means the court assumes responsibility for the care and control of your child. The court has the power to make reasonable court orders related to the supervision, custody, maintenance, support, and care of your child.

Sometimes, the court can remove your child from your home and place them in foster care. Prior to the court removing your child from your physical custody, it should find the following:

You did not offer your child proper training, education, and maintenance
The child is a truant
Your child's welfare requires the court to remove the child from your physical custody.
Your child has been on probation in your custody, but has not reformed

The probation official determines the best placement of the ward. When the court places a child outside your home for foster care, it should take them to a safe space that is less restrictive, satisfies the interests of the child, and is family-like.

The probation department should make efforts to ensure the placement is near your home.

During a suitable placement court hearing, the court will review your child's social study prepared by the probation department. It can comprise a victim impact statement. You or your child can also provide material and relevant proof.

The judge might reject or accept the probation officers' recommendations. If the judge rejects the recommendation, they will consider other child placement recommendations.

The Different Categories of Out-of-Home Placement

These types include the following:

Extended family members and family—Placing your child with loved ones is the most preferred option. If the probation department places your child in a relative's home, the court might authorize the loved one to function as the parent as far as legal consent is concerned. It could entail authorization for your child's education and for surgical, dental, and medical care.
A foster and resource family home—If the court cannot place your child with loved ones, placement could be in a group care setting, a foster family home, or an approved treatment home.
Group care home and treatment center—Different group care placement options include group homes and community treatment centers.

How Long Will the Court Place Your Child Out of Your Home

Typically, the court wants the ward to return home. Numerous factors determine the duration of stay, including the following:

Your child's and your family's needs
The juvenile's threat level to society
If the minor has completed their treatment services

The court should schedule a review court hearing every six (6) months. The court should hold a permanency planning hearing after a year during their placement.

Does Your Child Have Rights

When the court imposes probation terms, the conditions should serve the minor's reformation and rehabilitation and be reasonable. A valid condition should have the following properties:

Be related to the offense in which the child was found guilty
Associated with behavior that is not criminal
Forbid or require behavior that is reasonably associated with future criminality

Here are some of your child's rights:

When the court places a minor out of their home, the ward is entitled to be visited by loved ones.
Your child has a right to internet and computer access
The court should place the child in out-of-home care based on their gender identity. It is irrespective of the sex or gender outlined in the child welfare or court records.

Police Questioning and Miranda Rights

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution advises a ward of their right against self-incrimination prior to a custodial police interrogation.

Here are these entitlements:

Your child is entitled to remain silent
Law enforcers could use whatever the minor says against them in court
The minor is entitled to legal representation
If you, the parent, cannot afford a lawyer, the court can provide your child with one free of charge

A custodial police interrogation means your child cannot leave freely, and the police ask questions tailored to produce incriminating responses.

The law requires police to read the Miranda warning to a minor whenever they arrest them. However, law enforcers can briefly interrogate the ward without reading or giving a warning. It is called a Terry Stop. The Terry Stop is lawful if the police have reasonable suspicion that a crime is being committed.

After reading the rights, the law enforcers will ask your child whether they understand their constitutional entitlements. If the child responds "yes," the police will inquire whether the child wishes to speak.

If the ward invokes their rights, the police should stop the interrogation. Your child does not require special words to invoke their rights. However, they should affirmatively invoke their right, and keeping quiet is inadequate.

If the child agrees to speak or speaks, they waive their entitlement to remain silent. Moving forward, the police can use whatever they say to establish their guilt.

The waiver should be voluntary. When determining whether the waiver is voluntary, the judge considers the following factors:

Whether the police officers threatened to harm or physically harmed the ward
Whether the law enforcers threatened to jail or arrest the minors' relatives
Whether the police promised more lenient penalties in return for the ward's confession
Whether the law enforcers denied your child their right to remain silent or consult an attorney
Whether the police denied your child access to washrooms, food, sleep, or water
Whether the interrogation was too lengthy

If the answer to any question is yes, the waiver is not voluntary.

The law also bans the police from questioning a ward below 17 in their custody until the minor child has retained an attorney. The consultation with the lawyer can happen by phone, video conference, or in person. Neither you, the parent, nor your child can waive the consultation.

However, the police officer might interrogate your child below 17 before you have hired an attorney if:

The police reasonably thought the details were essential to safeguard property or life from a pending risk
The police's questions are restricted to those reasonably essential to acquire those details

Please note that the law does not apply to the probation department in the performance of its duties.

Will You Consent to Your Child Being Questioned by the Police?

The law enforcement authority can question your child without your consent.

As previously mentioned, the juvenile interrogation should be voluntary. If your child requests to have you present and the police deny the request, a court might decide the ward's participation was involuntary.

Are You Entitled to be Present When the Law Enforcers are Interrogating Your Child

You are not entitled to be present when the police are interrogating your child. Consequently, it is your child's responsibility to safeguard their rights.

Nonetheless, the law enforcers can be tricky. The officers are not your child's friend, and their responsibility is to build a delinquency case against a child when they believe the ward committed a crime. You should advise your child to refuse to answer police questions without first consulting an attorney.

Please note that your conversations with your child while they are in police custody are not confidential. Interrogation rooms have secret audio or video recording equipment, and the police could use whatever you or your child says against the juvenile in court.

It is advisable to consult with an attorney before visiting your child. The conversations between your child and the attorney are privileged, and the police cannot use them to incriminate your child.

Remedies When the Police Violate Your Child's Miranda Rights

Typically, the court should exclude subsequent statements from the delinquency case.

Nevertheless, if the police coerced the confession, it can be used to impeach the minor. It means if your child changes their version of the story at trial, their statement could be used to prove that they are lying.

When your child makes incriminating statements and later denies them at their adjudication court hearing, the prosecutor will request a continuance. The judge will pause court hearings for a week to permit the prosecutor to subpoena the law enforcer who heard your child's statements.

The police officer will testify about these statements. However, if the police failed to effectively read the Miranda warning, your defense attorney can aggressively seek to have the testimony declared inadmissible.

Can You Be Responsible for Your Child's Delinquency

It depends.

You can face criminal charges when you contribute to your child committing a crime. The prosecutor could charge you with the crime if you act or fail to act, and your failure to act or the action leads to any of the following:

Your child becomes a dependent of the California delinquency court system
The minor becomes a habitual truant
The juvenile becomes a juvenile delinquent

To find you guilty of the offense, the prosecutor should demonstrate that your control, protection, or supervision over your child was unreasonable. For instance, you encouraged your son to miss school or gave your daughter controlled substances.

Contributing to your child's delinquency is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine that does not exceed $2,500 and a one-year county jail sentence.

Civil Liabilities for Your Child Committing an Offense

While you might not face a criminal charge for an offense your child committed, you could be accountable in civil court for damages stemming from your child's crime. In other words, you are liable for paying for the damages or injuries the minor caused.

For example, if your son steals your car keys and ends up causing a car accident that injures a person, you might be civilly liable for the injuries your child caused. Additionally, you might be liable for the damage to the other individual's car.

However, the financial responsibility is subject to consideration of your ability to pay. You have the burden of proving the following:

Your inability to pay
You do not have a notice of potential accountability before your child was found guilty or was not present during some hearings associated with fines, fees, or restitution.

Informal Diversion Per WIC 654

The probation department can informally oversee your child without bringing a petition. It is known as informal juvenile probation, and it lasts six (6) months. The California probation department should strike a balance between society's interests and the minor's interests. In every delinquency case, the probation department should make diligent efforts to place the juvenile on informal diversion.

When determining if to place your child on informal diversion, the probation department considers the following factors:

Whether the delinquent conduct is deemed severe
Whether you and your child can resolve the issue without a court action
Whether there is a need for further evaluation or observation before the probation officers can decide
Your and your child's attitudes
The capabilities, maturity, and age of your child
Whether your child has a history of delinquency or dependency
Whether there exist recommendations of referring agencies or parties
The affected individuals' attitudes
Whether there exist circumstances that prove that informal diversion would benefit your child and protect the public
Whether your child has issues in the community, school, or home, that show that supervision might be essential

You and your child should accept the terms of the proposed informal diversion. The agreement should indicate that you and your child will do the following:

Engage in parenting, education, or counseling programs
Acquire treatment and care for the addiction to or misuse of drugs

If your child fails to participate in the programs within two months, the probation department should file a petition. Additionally, the probation department can file a petition due to poor performance within the six-month probation duration or within three months after the completion of informal diversion.

Early Diversion

Generally, the probation department will refer the delinquent matter to the prosecution for bringing, but propose that the court grant informal probation. The judge makes the final decision. The judge should consider relevant proof about the minor's current condition and future welfare.

The court can order informal diversion even when the probation department or prosecution objects.

If the court grants informal probation, the case will continue for six (6) months. You, the guardian or parent, should accept engaging in essential education or counseling programs. It is not a must that your child admit that their petition is accurate.

What Happens After Your Child Completes the Informa Diversion

After six months, your child should return to the court. 15 days before the end of your informal diversion, the probation department should submit a written report about the ward's performance to the judge.

If your child has completed the informal probation, the court will dismiss their petition. If their performance is unsatisfactory, the judge might extend their probation duration. If your child still fails to complete probation, hearings on their petition resume. The delinquency hearing will resume within a year of when the probation officer filed the petition.

Felony Delinquency Cases

The probation department should refer some delinquency cases to the prosecution for formal filing. A child accused of committing a California felony after age 14 may not be placed under Welfare and Institutions Code 654, except in unusual circumstances. Under this law, the judge should:

Find an unusual case where the interests of justice would best be served
Outline on the record the rationale for their decision

Please note that even when a child above 14 has committed a felony, the court should make a finding of unusual circumstances. Informal diversion is a more preferred option to WIC 790 (deferred entry of judgment) because:

Your child does not have to confess to the criminal activity
The probation duration is short
The terms of informal diversion are more lenient
Your child can challenge the issue if their probation performance is unsatisfactory

Find an Experienced Juvenile Delinquency Defense Attorney Near Me

Learning that your child is a ward of the court can be overwhelming and traumatic. Your child might be in a precarious situation with their future uncertain. Do not panic. Instead, be proactive and take the right steps to protect your child's rights, including hiring a qualified juvenile delinquency defense attorney.

Pasadena Criminal Attorney understands how complicated the California juvenile justice system can be and can aggressively represent your child at every stage of the process. We can also comprehensively investigate the case facts, review evidence, interview witnesses, and coordinate with school officials and medical experts to build a defense strategy tailored to the minor's circumstances and background.

Our personalized representation seeks to reduce the impact of the cases on your child's future. Please call us at 626-689-2277 to schedule your free case review.