What age range is considered a juvenile in Illinois?

Juvenile proceedings may be brought for violations committed before a minor's 18th birthday, and a minor under 18 at the time of the alleged offense generally may not be prosecuted under criminal law. The exceptions are those in Sections 5-125, 5-130, 5-805 and 5-810, which include excluded offenses at 16 and transfer motions at 13 or older.

Does a minor have the right to an attorney in Illinois juvenile court?

For a minor kept in custody, Illinois requires the court to have counsel appointed immediately when the petition is filed. Section 5-415 also bars holding the detention hearing until the minor has had adequate opportunity to consult with counsel.

Can a juvenile case in Illinois be transferred to adult court?

Yes. Certain charges against minors 16 or older are excluded from juvenile court under § 5-130. Section 5-805 also provides presumptive transfer and discretionary transfer for minors 13 or older, each depending on findings by a juvenile judge. Under § 5-805, adult sentencing follows the Unified Code of Corrections.

What happens at a juvenile detention hearing in Illinois?

The judge's question at this hearing is narrow: whether the minor stays in custody, not whether the allegations are true. That comes later, at the adjudicatory hearing. Because the minor must first have had a chance to consult with counsel, a parent may see counsel speaking with the child before the hearing begins, and defense counsel may ask the court for preparation time, which pauses the statutory clock under § 5-415.

Can a juvenile record be sealed or expunged in Illinois?

Some can. Courts must automatically order expungement after any of these outcomes: - a dismissal; - a finding of not delinquent; - successful termination of supervision; or - successful termination of an adjudication for certain minor offenses. Police also expunge qualifying records yearly. Other records depend on § 5-915's remaining provisions.

What is a disposition in Illinois juvenile court?

It is the juvenile court's order after the allegations are proved, and it is not an adult sentence even though the statute calls it a sentencing order. The practical difference from detention is timing: detention happens before a finding, while a disposition follows one. Even the most serious juvenile disposition is capped at what an adult could face for the same act.

What is diversion in Illinois juvenile cases?

Diversion handles a case outside formal court. One Illinois form is the station adjustment, either informal or formal, which is not an adjudication or a conviction. The statute caps how many a minor can receive within 3 years without State's Attorney approval.

Illinois Juvenile Defense: Arrest, Court and Records

When a minor is arrested in Illinois, the case usually belongs in juvenile court, not adult court. Illinois law covers alleged offenses committed before the minor's 18th birthday and requires a detained minor to see a judicial officer within 40 hours, not counting weekends and court holidays. Transfer to adult court, diversion and expungement are each possible only under specific conditions.

If you are reading this, your child has probably been picked up by police, is being held, or has been handed papers with a court date on them, and you are trying to work out what each of those things means before the next one happens. Most people facing a child's juvenile case have never stood in a juvenile courtroom and do not know which steps are routine and which ones carry weight. You are likely also thinking past the courtroom, to school next week and to what a record could mean years from now. This page walks through the Illinois juvenile court process in the order a case usually moves, using the words the Illinois statutes use.

How Illinois Juvenile Court Works

Illinois juvenile delinquency cases are governed by the Juvenile Court Act of 1987, 705 ILCS 405. Under 705 ILCS 405/5-120, proceedings may be brought concerning any minor who, before the minor's 18th birthday, violated or attempted to violate an Illinois state, county or municipal law or ordinance. The same section says that no minor who was under 18 at the time of the alleged offense may be prosecuted under the criminal laws of Illinois, except as Sections 5-125, 5-130, 5-805 and 5-810 provide. The Act is state law, so it applies whether the case is in Cook County, DuPage County, Lake County, Will County, Kane County or anywhere else in Illinois.

A few terms come up in nearly every case:

Petition: the document that starts a juvenile court case by alleging what the minor did. It is not a criminal complaint.
Detention hearing: an early hearing where a judge decides whether a minor stays in custody.
Adjudicatory hearing (sometimes called a jurisdiction or adjudication hearing): the juvenile court's trial on whether the allegations are proved.
Disposition: the order the court makes after the allegations are found true. Illinois's statute calls these sentencing orders, but they are juvenile court orders, not adult sentences.
Ward of the court: a minor placed under the court's continuing authority.
Probation: supervision in the community under court-set conditions.
Diversion: handling a case outside formal court proceedings.
Transfer hearing: a hearing on whether a case moves to adult criminal court.
Sealing and expungement: limiting access to records, or, for expungement, having them expunged as the statute directs.

A Minor's Rights During Police Questioning in Illinois

Custodial interrogation means questioning by police while a person is in custody, meaning held or not free to leave, as opposed to a conversation where the person is free to walk away. For a parent, the hardest hours often come here, before anyone has explained what is happening or where the child is.

Illinois has its own statutory rules about questioning minors in custody, and the United States Supreme Court has decided cases about the questioning of young people. This page does not set out the specific advisements or consultation rights Illinois requires before custodial questioning, so nothing here should be read as a statement of what those rights are or how they apply to a particular interview. What this page does cover is the next stage: once a minor is held and a case moves toward court, 705 ILCS 405/5-415 states that no detention hearing may be held until the minor has had adequate opportunity to consult with counsel.

What happened in a particular interview, including the timeline of the questioning and who was present, is a subject a consultation can cover.

Arrest and Detention: What Happens in the First 24 to 48 Hours

The detention clock in Illinois is set by statute. Under 705 ILCS 405/5-415, a minor alleged to be delinquent who is taken into temporary custody must, unless released sooner, be brought before a judicial officer within 40 hours for a detention or shelter care hearing. That hearing decides whether the minor will be held in custody any longer. The 40 hours do not count Saturdays, Sundays and court-designated holidays.

The 40-hour period can also be tolled, meaning the clock stops running for a time. Section 5-415 describes three situations:

Delay attributable to the minor. Time lost because of the minor does not count against the 40 hours.
Hospitalization or treatment. The period is tolled when the minor is hospitalized or receiving treatment as the section describes.
Defense preparation. The minor's counsel may file a motion asking for time to prepare for the hearing; if the court grants it, the period is tolled.

If a minor is not brought before a judicial officer within the period, the minor must be released from custody when it expires.

Two other protections in § 5-415 matter to parents. When a petition is filed for a minor kept in custody, the court must have counsel appointed to represent the minor immediately. The hearing cannot go forward until the minor has had adequate opportunity to consult with counsel. Whether a judge keeps a minor detained depends on findings the court makes at the hearing under the statute, and those findings depend on the facts of the case.

Holding a minor before the case is decided is different from a commitment ordered after a finding. Commitment to the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, discussed below, is a disposition, not pre-hearing detention. The federal OJJDP case flow overview notes that detention can sometimes continue past the adjudicatory and dispositional hearings.

The Juvenile Court Process: From Petition to Disposition

Diversion can end a case before it reaches court. In Illinois, one form of diversion is the station adjustment, which police handle under 705 ILCS 405/5-301. An informal station adjustment is not an adjudication of delinquency or a criminal conviction. Even so, a record of one is kept with the Illinois State Police when the offense would be a felony if committed by an adult, and may be kept when it would be a misdemeanor.

The section limits how often station adjustments can be used. Without prior approval from the State's Attorney's Office, a minor may receive no more than 3 informal station adjustments statewide for misdemeanor offenses within 3 years, and no more than 3 for felony offenses within 3 years. For formal station adjustments, the limits without State's Attorney approval are 2 for felony offenses and 3 for misdemeanor offenses within a 3-year period.

A minor or parent may revoke consent to a formal station adjustment within 30 days after it begins and have the matter referred for court action or other appropriate action. The revocation must be in writing and personally served on the police officer or the officer's supervisor. If the minor violates a term of a formal station adjustment, the juvenile police officer must give written notice to the minor and parent and may then take one of the steps the section lists, which include a warning.

When a case is not diverted, it moves to court. A delinquency petition is filed and an adjudicatory hearing is scheduled. At that hearing, witnesses are called and the facts are presented. The OJJDP overview notes that in nearly all such hearings a judge decides whether the youth was responsible, although some states give a jury trial right. If the allegations are proved, the court moves to disposition.

What a Disposition Can Include

Illinois lists the kinds of orders a court may enter in 705 ILCS 405/5-710. The list includes, among other options, detention for up to 30 days in a juvenile detention home, either alone or together with another order, for a minor 10 or older. That 30-day limit may be extended for a minor under 15 committed to the Department of Children and Family Services if the court finds the minor is a danger to the minor or others.

The most serious option is commitment. A minor may be committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice only if the minor is at least 13 and under 20 and was found guilty of a felony offense or first degree murder. A commitment can never be longer than the period an adult could be committed for the same act. The order must state a limit on confinement that does not exceed the maximum the court could impose on an adult under the Unified Code of Corrections.

The section also requires the court to credit pre-custody time the minor is entitled to. When community service is ordered, it may not interfere with the minor's school hours, school-related activities or work, or with the work commitments of the parent or guardian.

Transfer to Adult Court in Illinois

Transfer is often the question parents worry about most, and Illinois answers it through several separate routes.

Excluded jurisdiction. Under 705 ILCS 405/5-130, the juvenile court article does not apply to a minor who was at least 16 at the time of the offense and is charged with any of three offenses:

first degree murder;
aggravated criminal sexual assault; or
aggravated battery with a firearm as that section describes, where the minor personally discharged a firearm.

Those charges, and all other charges arising from the same incident, are prosecuted under Illinois criminal law.

Presumptive transfer. Under 705 ILCS 405/5-805, when the State's Attorney files the petition and motion the section describes, a juvenile judge first decides whether there is probable cause to believe the allegations are true. If the judge finds probable cause, there is a rebuttable presumption that the minor is not a fit and proper subject for juvenile court. The judge must then permit adult prosecution unless the judge finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that the minor would be amenable to the juvenile court's care, treatment and training programs. That finding rests on factors the section lists, including the minor's age.

Discretionary transfer. For a minor 13 or older alleged to have committed an act that is a crime, the State's Attorney may move for adult prosecution. After a hearing held before trial begins, the judge may permit it upon finding probable cause that the allegations are true and that proceeding under the Act is not in the best interests of the public.

If adult prosecution goes forward under § 5-805 and a finding of guilt is entered, the criminal court sentences the minor under Section 5-4.5-105 of the Unified Code of Corrections. Other states draw these lines differently. For comparison, see the rules in Pennsylvania juvenile defense and New York juvenile defense.

Sealing a Juvenile Record in Illinois

Illinois addresses juvenile records mainly through expungement under 705 ILCS 405/5-915. In general usage, sealing limits who can see a record, while expungement goes further. What happens to a particular Illinois record depends on the terms of § 5-915, not on the minor turning 18. Nothing in this section means a record simply disappears.

Section 5-915 sets out two automatic routes.

Expungement by law enforcement. The Illinois State Police and all law enforcement agencies in the state must automatically expunge, on or before January 1 of each year, juvenile law enforcement records of events before an individual's 18th birthday. This applies only if the conditions the section lists are met, and is subject to the exception the section describes.

Expungement ordered by the court. The court must automatically order expungement of juvenile court records and juvenile law enforcement records when any of the following occurs:

a delinquency petition is dismissed;
the minor is found not delinquent;
an order of supervision is successfully terminated; or
an adjudication is successfully terminated for an offense that would be a Class B or Class C misdemeanor, or a petty or business offense, if committed by an adult.

The clerk sends a certified copy of the order to the Illinois State Police and the arresting agency, and the expungement must be completed within 60 business days after the order is received.

Cases outside the automatic routes. A felony adjudication, or any outcome not on the list above, does not fall within the court-ordered automatic route. Those records are governed by other provisions of § 5-915. At a high level, what happens to them turns on two things this page has already described: the offense involved and how the case ended. The law enforcement route described above also has its own conditions and an exception, so whether a given record qualifies depends on those terms rather than on the age of the case alone. This page does not set out those remaining provisions in detail, and a parent of a child with a more serious adjudication would need them applied to the specific record. Compare Maryland juvenile defense, where the conditions differ.

School, Employment, and Other Consequences of a Juvenile Case

A juvenile case can reach beyond the courtroom. Many parents reasonably wonder whether their child's school will find out, or whether a future employer will.

Illinois school discipline is a separate process from juvenile court, run under its own rules. A school disciplinary matter with no charge or police involvement is outside this page.

An adjudication is not a criminal conviction, and § 5-301 says the same of an informal station adjustment. Even so, a juvenile case can still affect school, employment applications, college and other areas. Whether expungement under § 5-915 has occurred can matter to what a record shows. How these consequences play out depends on the facts and on rules this page does not cover.

Immigration consequences are governed by immigration law this page does not cover.

What This Site Covers — and What It Does Not

The California system is covered in the most depth on this site, in California juvenile defense, and none of those California rules apply in Illinois.

This page covers Illinois delinquency proceedings: questioning, detention, station adjustments, adjudication, disposition, transfer and expungement. It does not cover:

status offenses;
child abuse and neglect proceedings involving a parent;
adult criminal cases, except where a minor's case moves to adult court;
each county's local court practices;
predictions of specific outcomes; or
immigration law.

Discussing Your Child's Case

An Illinois juvenile case turns on details that move quickly: the detention clock, whether a station adjustment is still possible, and whether the charge falls within § 5-130 or a § 5-805 transfer motion. A consultation can cover the petition and charges, the next hearing date, whether the child is detained, and the stage the case has reached. This page does not address any county's local practice or how a particular case may end.

To discuss these questions with an attorney, a consultation about a child's juvenile case can be requested through Juvenile Justice Defense Group.

Illinois Juvenile Defense: What Happens When a Minor Is Arrested or Charged