What is the difference between a juvenile adjudication and a criminal conviction in Colorado?

An adjudication is the juvenile court's finding that the allegations in a petition are true. Colorado's statutes describe this as being "adjudicated a juvenile delinquent." It happens in juvenile court under the Children's Code, not in adult criminal court. Expungement options and other consequences are tied to that juvenile adjudication.

Can a Colorado juvenile case be transferred to adult court?

Yes. A juvenile 16 or older at the time of the alleged offense may be charged directly in district court if further statutory conditions are met. The juvenile court can also transfer some felony cases involving youth 12 or older. Transfer requires a hearing and a finding that keeping the case in juvenile court would be contrary to the best interests of the juvenile or the public.

How soon after arrest does a detention hearing happen in Colorado?

The court must hold the detention hearing within 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. The limit is 24 hours for a youth held on a warrant for violating a valid court order on a status offense. At the hearing, the decision is whether the youth goes home on community supervision or stays detained.

What is diversion and who is eligible in Colorado?

Diversion resolves a case outside formal adjudication. Eligibility rests on the offense alleged, the child's history, and decisions by the prosecutor or probation staff, and practice varies by community. Completing diversion, a deferred adjudication or an informal adjustment opens a route to petition for expungement.

Will my child have a criminal record after a juvenile case in Colorado?

A juvenile case creates a juvenile record, not an adult criminal record. That record can still matter until it is expunged, and expungement is tied to court orders and eligibility. School and employment effects fall under rules outside this page's scope. Immigration consequences are governed by immigration law.

Can a Colorado juvenile record be sealed?

Colorado calls it expungement. The court enters an order for juveniles who are eligible under one statutory provision. Others may petition, and a petition may be filed only once in a twelve-month period unless the statute says otherwise. Some adjudications, including homicide and violent or aggravated juvenile offender adjudications, limit the routes available. Judges and probation can still see expunged records for future sentencing.

What happens at a disposition hearing in Colorado juvenile court?

After adjudication, the court decides what happens next. The options include probation with conditions and commitment to the Department of Human Services. Commitments for violent and repeat offenders carry a minimum of one year, and aggravated juvenile offenders can be committed for up to seven years. Colorado's statutes title this stage "sentencing."

Colorado Juvenile Defense: Detention, Transfer, Expungement

When a minor is charged in Colorado, the case usually runs through juvenile court under the Colorado Children's Code. The case moves through a detention decision, possible diversion and an adjudicatory hearing. If the court finds the allegations true, a disposition hearing follows. Some cases can move to adult court, and some records can later be expunged.

Most people facing a Colorado juvenile case are parents who got a phone call they never expected. A son was picked up after school in Aurora. A daughter is being held overnight in Denver. A paper from the court in El Paso County uses words nobody has explained yet. You are trying to work out whether your child comes home, what the next hearing decides, and what this means for school and for the years after it. This page walks through each stage in the order a case usually moves.

How Colorado Juvenile Court Works

Colorado's juvenile delinquency cases are governed by the Colorado Children's Code, Title 19 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The Children's Code text applies to "any juvenile ten years of age or older" who has violated a federal or state law. It excludes some matters, including nonfelony state traffic, game and fish, and parks and recreation laws. It also excludes certain underage alcohol and marijuana offenses. Its sentencing provisions refer to acts "committed prior to the person's eighteenth birthday."

The upper age limit differs from state to state. A federal OJJDP glossary entry says that states vary in their upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction and that age 17 is the most common.

A case formally begins with a petition. A petition is the document that sets out what the child is accused of doing. It is not a criminal complaint. Several other terms come up throughout a case:

A detention hearing decides whether the child stays held.
An adjudicatory hearing is the juvenile court's trial.
Disposition is what the court orders afterward.
Diversion resolves a case outside formal adjudication.
A transfer hearing decides whether a case moves to adult court.
Expungement is Colorado's word for what many states call sealing.

Each of these is explained below. The same Code applies to a case in Denver, Jefferson County, Arapahoe County or El Paso County. Local practice still differs from one place to another, and the facts of each case shape how these rules play out at every stage described below.

Arrest, Questioning, and the First Hours

The first hours after an arrest usually involve a short review by detention or probation staff. The federal OJJDP case flow overview says that after arrest, juvenile probation officers or detention workers review the case. Law enforcement often brings a youth to a local juvenile detention facility. Juvenile probation officers or detention workers then decide whether the youth should be held until a judge hears the case.

Detention means being held in a secure facility while the case is pending. Some young people are cited and released to a parent instead of being held. Whether that happens turns on the offense alleged, the facts, and local screening practice in places like Denver, Colorado Springs or Aurora.

In Colorado, the Children's Code requires the screening team to notify a parent or legal guardian. If no parent or guardian can be located within the county, the team notifies the person the juvenile has been living with. The team must also tell that person about "the right to a prompt hearing to determine whether the juvenile is to be detained further."

Questioning by police is a separate issue. What rights a minor has during questioning, and what officers must do before questioning a minor in custody, is governed by constitutional law and by state law, and those rules vary by state. California's rules are covered on the California juvenile defense page, and they are not Colorado's rules.

The Detention Hearing: Whether Your Child Comes Home

Under the Colorado Children's Code, a detained child must have a detention hearing within 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. If the child is being held on a warrant for violating a valid court order on a status offense, the hearing must be held within 24 hours, again excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays.

The Division of Youth Services page adds more detail. It says that all youth who are detained or placed in community supervision programs receive a hearing before a magistrate within 48 hours. For youth held in secure detention, a decision is then made on one question: will the youth be sent home on a community supervision and treatment plan, or is further detention warranted?

Release on community supervision is Colorado's counterpart to what other states call home supervision. It means the child lives at home under conditions the court sets.

The same page lists two purposes of detention. One is to make sure an accused youth appears for court hearings. The other is to allow a court to order an adjudicated youth held for up to 45 days as a sanction.

Many factors can matter to the decision, including the offense alleged, the child's history and the home the child would return to. The weight a magistrate in Jefferson County or El Paso County gives each one varies from case to case. For a parent waiting through that first weekend, the hearing date is the one fixed point.

Diversion: Resolving a Case Before Adjudication

Diversion offers some young people a way to resolve a case without the court formally finding them delinquent. In plain terms, diversion means the child completes a program or meets conditions outside the usual track of adjudication and disposition.

Colorado's official court instructions on expungement name three related outcomes:

a juvenile diversion program
a deferred adjudication
an informal adjustment

Completing one of them affects later record relief, which is covered below.

Whether diversion is offered, and on what terms, varies from place to place. The OJJDP case flow overview notes that "even within States, case processing often varies from community to community depending on local practice and tradition." A case in Denver, Jefferson County, Arapahoe County, El Paso County, Boulder County or Larimer County may therefore be handled differently.

Eligibility generally rests on the offense alleged, the child's history and the decisions of the prosecutor or probation staff. Nothing guarantees that diversion will be offered. Nothing guarantees that a case will end in dismissal if diversion is completed. Other states use their own versions of diversion; for one example, see the Pennsylvania juvenile defense page.

The Adjudication Hearing: What the Court Decides

The adjudicatory hearing is where the court decides whether the allegations in the petition are true. The OJJDP case flow overview describes it in general terms: witnesses are called and the facts of the case are presented. In nearly all adjudicatory hearings, a judge makes the decision, although some states give the youth the right to a jury trial.

Adjudication is the court's finding that the allegations are true. Colorado's statute text describes the result as being "adjudicated a juvenile delinquent." This is the language that applies to a juvenile case in Denver or Colorado Springs. It is a different legal event from a conviction in adult criminal court.

Which procedural protections apply at the hearing, and how, is specific to each case. Contesting the evidence is the central purpose of the hearing.

If the court sustains the allegations, the case moves to disposition. Disposition is the court's decision about what happens next, such as probation, treatment or placement. Colorado's statutes title this stage "sentencing." In this page's terms, it remains the juvenile court's disposition.

Transfer to Adult Court: When It Can Happen in Colorado

Colorado has two routes by which a minor's case can reach adult court.

Direct filing. The Children's Code provides that a juvenile may be charged in district court by direct filing of an information, or by indictment, "only if the juvenile is sixteen years of age or older at the time of the commission of the alleged offense." Additional conditions in the statute must also be met.

Transfer by the juvenile court. The Code also sets out conditions under which the juvenile court may give up its jurisdiction. They include a juvenile who was:

12 or 13 at the time of the alleged offense and alleged to have committed a delinquent act that is a class 1 or class 2 felony or a crime of violence; or
14 or older at the time of the alleged offense and alleged to have committed a felony.

In either situation, transfer also requires that "after investigation and a hearing," the juvenile court "finds it would be contrary to the best interests of the juvenile or of the public to retain jurisdiction."

A case that moves to adult court, whether in Denver or El Paso County, follows adult criminal procedure and carries adult consequences. The juvenile court's dispositions no longer apply.

These are Colorado's rules. California's transfer rules are different and are not part of a Colorado case. Whether a particular case stays in juvenile court rests on its facts and on the court's findings.

Probation, Disposition, and What Comes After Adjudication

Probation is a common disposition in juvenile courts. The OJJDP case flow overview describes juvenile probation orders in general terms:

A probation order may include drug counseling, weekend confinement in a local detention center, and community or victim restitution.
Review hearings track the youth's progress.
The judge ends the case once the conditions have been successfully met.

Conditions can also reach curfew and school attendance. A violation can bring the child back before the court.

Ward of the court is a phrase many states use for a child the court supervises after adjudication. It means the court keeps authority over the child and can change the conditions it has set.

For more serious cases, the court may commit a youth to the Colorado Department of Human Services. The Division of Youth Services page explains how commitment works:

DYS operates 10 secure youth centers serving youth ages 10 to 21.
Commitments can be non-mandatory or mandatory.
Violent and repeat offenders receive mandatory commitments of no less than one year.
Aggravated juvenile offenders can be committed for up to seven years.
Every committed youth leaving DYS serves six months of mandatory parole, which can be extended by 15 months in cases that meet certain criteria.
The Colorado Juvenile Parole Board sets the terms of parole.

Age matters at this stage too. The Children's Code allows the court to commit a person who is 18 or older but under 21 to the Department of Human Services, if the person is adjudicated for an act committed before turning 18 or upon revocation of probation. A person who is 18 or older on the date of the disposition hearing may instead be ordered to county jail for up to six months, or to a community corrections facility or program for up to one year. Both options are subject to the separate rules for aggravated juvenile offenders.

Courts in Jefferson County, Larimer County or El Paso County may use these options differently.

Sealing a Colorado Juvenile Record

Colorado uses the word expungement for this kind of record relief. The Colorado Judicial Branch instructions define expungement to mean that the records "will be considered to have never existed, and the public will not be able to see the records." The person may lawfully deny the expunged matter.

Expunged records are still not fully gone. Under the same instructions:

Basic identification information, and a list of the agencies that had contact with the person, stays available to a district attorney, local law enforcement, the Department of Human Services, the state judicial department and the victim. It is not available to the U.S. military.
Any expunged record stays available to a judge and the probation department for any future juvenile or adult sentencing hearing.

Expungement happens through court orders and eligibility rules, not because a child reaches a certain age. The Children's Code directs the court to enter an expungement order for every juvenile who is eligible under one provision of the statute. Other routes require a petition.

The instructions describe who may file and where:

The juvenile, a respondent parent or guardian, or a court-appointed guardian ad litem may ask for expungement.
The petition is filed in the court that has jurisdiction of the case.
If the case was transferred between counties, paperwork must be filed in each county where a case exists.
A petition may be filed only once in a twelve-month period, unless the statute states otherwise.
Completing a diversion program, a deferred adjudication or an informal adjustment opens a petition route that requires notice and a hearing on objections.

Some adjudications limit which routes are open. They include:

a felony involving unlawful sexual behavior
an aggravated or violent juvenile offender adjudication
homicide and related offenses
offenses under Colorado's title 42

Until a record is expunged, it can affect school, employment background checks and other areas of life. Those consequences turn on rules outside the scope of this page. Immigration consequences are governed by immigration law, which this page does not cover.

What Juvenile Justice Defense Group Covers — and What It Does Not

This page explains how a Colorado juvenile case proceeds, what each hearing decides, when a case can reach adult court, and how expungement works. Those rules apply the same way to a case from Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Boulder, Fort Collins or Pueblo. This site has no office in any of those places.

This page does not cover:

adult criminal cases, except where a minor's case moves to adult court
dependency cases, in which a parent is accused of abuse or neglect
school discipline with no criminal charge or police involvement
immigration proceedings

It also does not state another state's rules as Colorado's. California's system, including county practice such as Sacramento County juvenile court, works differently.

Discussing Your Child's Colorado Case

The questions that matter most in a Colorado juvenile case are tied to dates and documents: when the detention hearing is, what the petition alleges, and whether the case could be filed directly in district court or face a transfer hearing. A consultation can cover the charge or petition, the hearing dates, whether the child is detained or on community supervision, and the stage the case has reached. This page covers Colorado's juvenile process only, not adult cases or dependency matters.

To talk through a case like this with an attorney, you can request a consultation about a child's juvenile case through Juvenile Justice Defense Group.

Colorado Juvenile Defense: What Happens When a Minor Is Charged