When a child is charged in Maryland, the case usually goes to juvenile court, not adult court. An intake officer first decides whether to authorize a petition, propose an informal adjustment, or decline the case. If a petition goes forward, the court holds an adjudicatory hearing on the facts, then a separate disposition hearing. Some cases can be waived to adult court, and some records later expunged.

If a child was picked up by police today, is being held overnight, or a family is holding a notice that says their son or daughter is the subject of a delinquency complaint, the questions come all at once: will the child come home, what happens at school, and will this follow them for the rest of their life. Most parents facing a Maryland juvenile case have never been inside a juvenile courtroom and do not know the vocabulary, let alone the order things happen in. This page walks through that order, step by step, using the Maryland statutes themselves.

How Maryland's Juvenile Court System Works

Maryland's juvenile court is a separate system with its own statute, its own steps and its own words. The rules for delinquency cases sit in the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article of the Maryland Code, beginning at Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-8A-01. The language matters, because it signals what kind of proceeding a child is in.

A few terms come up constantly:

  • Delinquent act: conduct that would be a crime if an adult did it.
  • Complaint and petition: a complaint is the referral that starts the case; a petition is the formal court document alleging that the child committed a delinquent act. It is the juvenile court's charging paper, not an adult criminal complaint.
  • Intake officer: the official who reviews the complaint and decides whether a petition should be filed. In Maryland, intake sits with the Department of Juvenile Services, which also supervises children the court places with it.
  • Detention: holding a child in a secure facility before the case is decided. Community detention is supervision at home under conditions.
  • Adjudicatory hearing: the hearing where the court decides whether the facts alleged in the petition are true.
  • Disposition: the court's order about what happens next if the facts are found true. It is not called a sentence.
  • Probation: court-ordered supervision in the community, on terms the court sets.
  • Informal adjustment: Maryland's form of diversion, meaning the case is handled outside a formal court process if the required parties consent.

Juvenile procedure is state law, and states differ. A California juvenile case or a Pennsylvania juvenile case follows its own statute; nothing on this page describes another state's rules. The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention notes that even within States, case processing often varies from community to community, which is true across Maryland's counties and Baltimore City as well.

Arrest, Intake, and the First Hours After a Minor Is Taken Into Custody

Detention decisions in Maryland belong to only two people. Under Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-8A-15, only the court or an intake officer may authorize detention, community detention or shelter care for a child alleged to be delinquent. A police officer can take a child into custody and ask for detention, but cannot order it.

The statute also limits when a child may be held before a hearing. Subject to further conditions in the same subsection, a child taken into custody may be placed in detention or community detention only if that is required to protect the child or others, or if the child is likely to leave the jurisdiction of the court. A child alleged to be delinquent may not be detained in a jail or other facility for the detention of adults.

The timing is what most parents ask about first. When a child is held, a petition to authorize continued detention must be filed immediately, and a hearing on it must be held not later than the next court day, unless the court extends it for no more than 5 days on good cause shown. Reasonable notice of the time, place and purpose of that hearing goes to the child and, if they can be found, the parents, guardian or custodian. If detention or community detention is granted, the adjudicatory or waiver hearing must be held no later than 30 days after that date.

Questioning carries constitutional weight. In In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967), the United States Supreme Court held that a child in a delinquency proceeding has the right to notice of the charges, the right to counsel, the privilege against self-incrimination and the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses. How those rights apply to a particular conversation with police depends on the facts.

From Intake to Adjudication: The Stages of a Maryland Juvenile Case

Intake is the first real decision point. Under Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-8A-10, the intake officer must make an inquiry within 15 business days into whether the court has jurisdiction and whether judicial action is in the best interests of the public or the child. If police asked for detention and the intake officer did not authorize it, that inquiry must happen within 2 business days. After the inquiry, the intake officer may authorize filing a petition or a peace order request or both, propose an informal adjustment, or take the other steps the statute lists.

Informal adjustment is the diversion route. The intake officer may not proceed with it unless the child and the child's parent or guardian consent. During the process, the child is under whatever supervision the intake officer considers appropriate, and if there is an intake conference, the child and parent or guardian must attend. Informal adjustment may not exceed 90 days unless the court extends it, or the intake officer finds more time is needed for a substance-related disorder treatment program or a mental health program that is part of the adjustment. If the victim, the child and the parent or guardian do not consent, the intake officer must either authorize a petition or peace order request, or deny authorization. Even after a petition is filed, the court may, before the adjudicatory hearing, hold the proceedings in abeyance for informal adjustment if the parties the statute lists consent, including the State's Attorney.

Once a petition is filed, the adjudicatory hearing is where the court hears the evidence and decides whether the child committed the delinquent act. If the facts are found, the disposition hearing follows.

Waiting through these weeks, particularly while a child is out of school or under supervision, is often the hardest part for a family; knowing which deadline governs each step at least makes the calendar readable.

Disposition: What the Maryland Juvenile Court Can Order

Disposition is its own hearing. Under Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-8A-19, after an adjudicatory hearing the court must hold a separate disposition hearing, unless the petition is dismissed or all parties waive the hearing in writing. It may be held the same day as the adjudicatory hearing only if all parties waive notice of it on the record.

The options the statute gives the court include:

  • placing the child on probation or under supervision at home, or in the custody or guardianship of a relative or other fit person, on terms the court considers appropriate, including community detention;
  • committing the child to the custody or guardianship of the Department of Juvenile Services, the Maryland Department of Health, or a public or licensed private agency, including designating the type of facility; and
  • ordering the child or parents to do things the statute goes on to list.

The statute also sets a floor. A child may not be committed to the Department of Juvenile Services for out-of-home placement if the most serious offense is possession of cannabis under the provision the statute cites, an offense that would be a misdemeanor if committed by an adult unless it involves a firearm, a technical violation, or a first-time violation for making a false statement, report or complaint of an emergency or a crime. That limit does not stop the court from committing the child to another appropriate agency.

Transfer to Adult Court in Maryland

A waiver hearing is the hearing at which the juvenile court decides whether to give up its jurisdiction so the child can be tried in adult criminal court. Under Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-8A-06, the court may waive jurisdiction over a child who is 15 or older, or over a younger child charged with an act that would be punishable by life imprisonment if committed by an adult. The waiver hearing must be held before any adjudicatory hearing and after notice to all parties.

The standard is specific. The court may not waive unless it determines, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the child is an unfit subject for juvenile rehabilitative measures, and for that purpose it must assume the child committed the act alleged. It must consider five criteria, individually and in relation to each other, on the record:

  1. the child's age;
  2. the child's mental and physical condition;
  3. the child's amenability to treatment in any institution, facility or program available to delinquents;
  4. the nature of the offense and the child's alleged participation in it; and
  5. the public safety.

It may also consider a victim impact statement. If jurisdiction is waived, the child is held for trial in the court that would hear the offense if an adult committed it, the petition serves as a charging document pending a bail hearing, and the waiver order is interlocutory.

Some cases begin in adult court instead. Under Crim. Proc. § 4-202, a court exercising criminal jurisdiction may, with the exceptions the statute lists, transfer a case to juvenile court before trial or plea if the child was at least 14 but not 18 when the alleged crime occurred, the crime is one of those the statute identifies as excluded from juvenile jurisdiction, and the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that transfer is in the interest of the child or society. The exceptions include murder in the first degree alleged against a child who was 16 or 17. The court considers the same five factors, may order a study of the child, family and environment, and must decide within 10 days after the transfer hearing.

Which of these paths applies depends on the charge, the child's age and the case's history; this page describes the framework, not how it applies to any one case.

Maryland Juvenile Records: Confidentiality and Expungement

Maryland treats juvenile records differently from adult records, but nothing about a juvenile record disappears on its own at 18. The relief Maryland's statute describes is expungement, sought by petition under Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-8A-27.1.

The court may order a juvenile record expunged only when the conditions the statute lists are met. They include:

  • the case ended in one of the ways the statute names, such as the State's Attorney entering a nolle prosequi or the court finding at disposition that the person does or does not require guidance, treatment or rehabilitation;
  • the person is 18 or older and at least 2 years have passed since the last official action in the record;
  • the person has not been adjudicated delinquent more than once;
  • the person has not since been convicted of any offense;
  • no delinquency petition or criminal charge is pending;
  • the person was not adjudicated delinquent for an offense that would be a crime of violence, among the other excluded offenses the statute lists; and
  • any court-ordered restitution has been fully paid.

The petition is served on listed victims, on family members of victims listed as attending the adjudication, and on the State's Attorney. The court weighs the person's best interests, stability in the community and the safety of the public. If no objection is filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

For many parents, school is the worry underneath this one. School discipline, college admissions and employment consequences can follow a juvenile case and 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 a Juvenile Defense Attorney Does in a Maryland Case

A juvenile defense attorney represents the child, who is the respondent in the juvenile case, rather than the parent. The role runs from the detention hearing through intake discussions, any waiver hearing, the adjudicatory hearing, disposition and any appeal. In re Gault is the reason that role exists in delinquency cases: the Supreme Court recognized the child's right to counsel along with notice, protection against self-incrimination and confrontation of witnesses.

In practice, the work tracks the stages above. Defense counsel explains the child's rights, contests detention at the detention hearing, engages with the intake officer and the State's Attorney about informal adjustment or the petition, tests the evidence at the adjudicatory hearing, presents the child's circumstances at disposition, and, where waiver is sought, addresses the five statutory criteria the court must weigh.

A parent or guardian who wants to connect with an attorney about a Maryland juvenile case can submit an inquiry through this site.

Discussing Your Child's Maryland Case

A Maryland juvenile case turns on dates and decisions that come quickly: the detention hearing, the intake officer's inquiry, whether informal adjustment is on the table, and, in serious cases, whether a waiver hearing is coming. A consultation can cover the complaint or petition, the hearing dates already set, whether the child is detained or on community detention, and the stage the case has reached. This page covers Maryland delinquency cases only, not dependency matters or an adult's criminal case. A parent or guardian who wants to discuss a case like this with an attorney can request a consultation about a child's juvenile case through Juvenile Justice Defense Group.