In California, a juvenile case moves to adult court only if the prosecutor asks for a transfer and a juvenile court judge grants it after a transfer hearing. The judge must find, by clear and convincing evidence, that the child is not amenable to rehabilitation in the juvenile system. Generally, the child must have been 16 or older.
A parent or guardian who hears the words "transfer motion" or "tried as an adult" about a teenager may be trying to work out whether the question is already decided, what the judge will look at, and how much of what they have read online is still true. This page walks through California's transfer law step by step, from the motion to the hearing to what follows either way.
What a Transfer to Adult Court Means Under California Law
A transfer hearing is a hearing in juvenile court where a judge decides whether a minor's case stays in juvenile court or moves to adult criminal court. Some people still call it a fitness hearing; Welf. & Inst. Code § 707 and the Rules of Court call it a transfer hearing. The governing statute is Welf. & Inst. Code § 707.
Transfer only makes sense against the starting point. Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 602, a minor between 12 and 17, inclusive, who is alleged to have broken a state or federal law, or a local ordinance defining a crime (other than an age-based curfew ordinance), is generally within the juvenile court's jurisdiction, and that court may make the minor a ward of the court, meaning the court takes legal authority over the child's supervision. Section 602 also reaches children under 12 alleged to have committed murder or certain forcible sex offenses. A juvenile case starts with a petition, the formal document listing the allegations, as the California Courts self-help guide explains.
A transfer changes the forum entirely. Instead of a judge deciding whether the petition's allegations are true and what juvenile court should do about it, the case would be prosecuted in a court of criminal jurisdiction. Proposition 57 (November 2016) and SB 1391 (2018) reshaped how that happens, covered in the last section below. For the broader picture, see the overview of juvenile cases tried as adults.
Which Offenses Can Lead to a Transfer Hearing
Age and offense work together under § 707(a). For a minor who was 16 or older at the time of the alleged offense, the district attorney may move to transfer for any offense listed in Welf. & Inst. Code § 707(b) or for any other felony. For a person who was 14 or 15, a transfer motion is allowed only for a § 707(b) offense, and only if the person was not apprehended before juvenile court jurisdiction ended.
The § 707(b) list covers serious and violent alleged offenses, including murder; attempted murder; robbery; certain arson offenses; rape, sodomy and oral copulation by force or threat; kidnapping for ransom, for robbery or with bodily harm; assault with a firearm or destructive device; assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury; discharging a firearm into an inhabited or occupied building; torture; and certain weapon, witness-intimidation, drug-sale and gang-related violent felonies. A parent whose child faces an assault charge in juvenile court will see two of those items there.
Being charged with one of these offenses does not transfer a case. It makes a motion possible. The motion comes from the district attorney or other prosecuting officer, and it must be made before jeopardy attaches. Under California Rules of Court, rule 5.766, the court first determines whether a prima facie showing has been made that the offense alleged is one that makes the youth subject to transfer.
How the Transfer Hearing Works
The hearing takes place in juvenile court, before a juvenile court judge. Rule 5.766 requires notice at least five judicial days before the hearing, and the court must rule on the transfer before the jurisdiction hearing begins. Under § 707(a)(3), the court postpones taking a plea to the petition until the transfer hearing ends, and any plea already entered is not evidence at the hearing.
Once the motion is made, the court orders the probation officer to prepare a report on the minor's behavioral patterns and social history, including any statement offered by the alleged victim under § 656.2. Rule 5.768 requires the report to be furnished to the youth, the parent or guardian, and all counsel at least two court days before the hearing; a party who did not receive it on time is entitled, on request, to a continuance of at least 24 hours. The court also considers any other relevant evidence the prosecution or the minor chooses to submit.
The standard is demanding. To order a transfer, the court must find by clear and convincing evidence that the minor is not amenable to rehabilitation while under juvenile court jurisdiction, and rule 5.770 places the burden of proving that there should be a transfer on the petitioner. Under § 707(a)(3)(A) through (E), the court must consider five criteria:
- The degree of criminal sophistication the minor showed, weighing any relevant factor, including age, maturity, intellectual capacity, health, impetuosity or failure to appreciate risks and consequences, family, adult or peer pressure, family and community environment, childhood trauma, involvement in child welfare or foster care, and whether the minor was a victim of human trafficking, sexual abuse or sexual battery.
- Whether the minor can be rehabilitated before juvenile court jurisdiction ends, including the minor's potential to grow and mature.
- The minor's previous delinquent history, including its seriousness and how environment and trauma affected it.
- The success of past juvenile court efforts to rehabilitate the minor, including whether services were adequate.
- The circumstances and gravity of the alleged offense, including the minor's actual behavior, mental state, degree of involvement, harm actually caused, and mental and emotional development, plus any evidence that the alleged victim trafficked or sexually abused the minor.
What Happens If the Judge Orders a Transfer
A transfer order has to be explained. Under § 707(a)(3) and rule 5.770, the court must recite the basis for its decision in an order entered on the minutes and state on the record how it weighed the evidence, which specific factors it relied on, and why it found the minor not amenable to rehabilitation in juvenile court.
After a transfer, the case is prosecuted in adult criminal court. The self-help guide notes that a youth tried as an adult can be sent to adult prison (CDCR) if found guilty. In that adult setting, a finding of guilt is a criminal conviction, and the result is a sentence, terms that do not apply to juvenile court.
A transfer order can be challenged right away. Rule 5.770 makes an order granting transfer an appealable order subject to immediate review. A notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of the order, or within 30 days after a referee's order becomes final or a rehearing application is denied; once a timely notice is filed, the court must send the record to the Court of Appeal within 20 days.
Other consequences, such as school discipline, college admissions and employment, can follow an adult criminal case, and they depend on the facts and on rules this page does not cover. Immigration consequences are governed by immigration law this page does not cover.
What Happens If the Judge Denies the Transfer
When the judge denies the motion, the case stays in juvenile court and moves toward the jurisdiction hearing, sometimes called the adjudication hearing. That is the juvenile version of a trial: the judge, with no jury, decides whether the petition's allegations are true, and the district attorney must prove them beyond a reasonable doubt, according to the self-help guide.
If the allegations are found true, the court holds a disposition hearing. A disposition is the juvenile court's decision about what happens next for the child, and it is not called a sentence. Options include probation, supervision with conditions set by the court, and other placements. For the most serious findings, the court can commit a youth to a secure youth treatment facility, which the self-help guide describes as a place where the youth lives, attends school and receives rehabilitative services under a court-approved case plan, for a specific period with periodic court review. California's Division of Juvenile Justice no longer operates. The full sequence is laid out in the guide to the juvenile court process.
Sealing, the legal process that closes a juvenile record so the proceedings are treated as not having occurred, may later be available, depending on the case. Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 786, a court generally dismisses and seals a petition after satisfactory completion of probation, but not for a § 707(b) offense committed at 14 or older unless that finding was dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor or a lesser non-listed offense. Welf. & Inst. Code § 781 allows a petition to seal, with added conditions for a § 707(b) offense committed after age 14 that resulted in wardship (unless it was dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor): the person must have reached 18 and completed any probation supervision for the offense (21 and supervision completed after release, for a person who was committed to the state's former Division of Juvenile Facilities). A record of such an offense for which the person must register under Penal Code § 290.008 is not sealed. Sealed § 707(b) records stay accessible to prosecutors and courts for certain later purposes.
Proposition 57 and SB 1391: How California's Transfer Law Changed
Before Proposition 57 passed in November 2016, prosecutors could file certain juvenile cases directly in adult court without any hearing before a juvenile judge. Proposition 57 ended direct filing, so a transfer now depends on a motion that a juvenile court judge decides under Welf. & Inst. Code § 707.
SB 1391, signed in 2018 and effective in 2019, narrowed transfers further. As § 707(a) now reads, a minor who was 16 or older at the alleged offense can be considered for transfer, and a person who was 14 or 15 can be considered only for a § 707(b) offense when not apprehended before juvenile court jurisdiction ended. The Judicial Council's information sheet for parents puts the usual case simply: the court must find that the juvenile system cannot rehabilitate the child, and the hearing happens only if the district attorney asks.
A parent reading an article that describes direct filing in California is reading law that has changed.
If You'd Like to Talk Through a Transfer Motion
This page explains California's transfer rules and does not cover adult-court sentencing or immigration law.
To request a consultation about a child's juvenile case, contact Juvenile Justice Defense Group.