Editorial Standards and Sources

Editorial standards

Every page is about juvenile criminal defense: investigations and arrests of minors, detention, juvenile court, the charges young people face, transfer to adult court, and what a case can mean for school and for a record. Pages give general information for parents, not advice about any particular case.

Articles are written from research and official sources gathered for each topic, and they pass the checks described below before they are published. A page that fails a blocking check is not published. Each article shows the date it was last updated.

Legal source hierarchy

Sources are used in this order of authority:

1. State legislatures and official statutory databases (for California, California Legislative Information).
2. State judicial branches and state rules of court (for California, the Judicial Council and the California Rules of Court).
3. State supreme court and appellate decisions, where relevant.
4. County superior courts and county probation departments.
5. Official juvenile-justice and detention agencies.
6. Federal government sources, where relevant.

Secondary sources, such as other websites, may help with research but never decide what a page says about a rule where an official source exists. Each article lists the sources it relies on, with links, at the end of the page.

State and county source standards

• A state’s rules come only from that state. What a state treats as a juvenile case, how it handles detention, diversion, transfer to adult court, probation and records, is stated only where that state’s own official text says it. Another state’s rule, or a general national explanation, is never presented as a state’s rule.
• County pages rest on official county sources. Court, probation and detention details on a county page come from the county’s own official pages. A county page states the area it covers; it never presents an office there.
• No local presence is implied. No page presents a local attorney, an office or a licence in any state or county.

What is checked before publication

• Citations. Statutes and other authorities an article cites are looked up in their official sources (California statutes in their official text), and case citations are checked against CourtListener, a public database of court opinions. A citation that cannot be found stops publication.
• Other pre-publication checks. Among them: that the page is about the right jurisdiction, that required disclosures and structured data are present, and that no unfinished placeholder text remains.
• Second review. Each draft is read a second time and possible errors are flagged. A flag is acted on only after it has been checked against the source text; a flag alone does not change a page.

Attorney review

Content pages name their reviewing attorney in one small line at the end of the page. The checks above apply to every page.

The site’s own pages

The site’s own pages (the home page, the indexes, this page) state no state’s rule, no age and no deadline. Where they mention a rule at all, it is in general terms that hold everywhere, such as that juvenile law differs from one state to the next.

Corrections

To report an error, email info@juvenilecriminaldefense.com with the page address and what you believe is wrong.

Not legal advice

Pages are general information about juvenile-defense matters, not advice about any particular case. See the Terms of Use.