If You Are Convicted of a Juvenile Offense, Will You Have a Permanent Criminal Record?
Interviewer: What commonly happens if you are convicted of a juvenile offense? Is your record automatically sealed forever?
Jack: Yes. It’s sealed and then at the appropriate time I send a letter and get everything erased. I make sure there is total erasure.
Can the Courts View Your Juvenile Record?
Interviewer: What happens if you are convicted of a juvenile offense and then you commit a crime as an adult, let’s say two years later, can the courts go back and look at your juvenile record and now charge you as a repeat offender, for instance?
Jack: No. If it was a serious juvenile offense then that becomes known to the adult court and there can be additional consequences because of that.
Interviewer: Then your goal, as their attorney, is to make sure that if a client is going to be convicted that it’s not a conviction of a serious juvenile offense, but less serious charge, is that right?
Jack: Yes, that is correct. The most serious juvenile offenses are delineated.
