A Texas juvenile case is handled under the Texas Family Code, not as an adult criminal case. A detained child gets a detention hearing within days, then an adjudication hearing and a disposition such as probation or commitment. Some felony cases can be transferred to adult court. A child may have an attorney at every stage.
Most people searching for a Texas juvenile defense lawyer are doing it in the hours after a phone call they never expected: a son or daughter is in a county detention center, or a school officer or detective has asked questions, or papers have arrived naming a court date. The questions come fast. Will my child come home tonight? Will this follow them to school, to college, into adulthood? Could this become an adult case? This page walks through how Texas juvenile court actually works, step by step, in the order a case moves.
How Texas Juvenile Court Works
Texas juvenile cases run under the Juvenile Justice Code in the Texas Family Code, with the Penal Code supplying the offenses. Under that code, a "child" is a person ten years of age or older and under 17, or a person 17 or older and under 18 who is alleged or found to have engaged in delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision as a result of acts committed before turning 17. Except where the code itself provides otherwise, the juvenile court has exclusive original jurisdiction over these proceedings.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department defines "delinquent conduct" as conduct, other than a traffic offense, that violates a Texas penal law punishable by imprisonment or jail confinement, or that violates a reasonable and lawful juvenile court order. The same page explains that state law requires each county to have a juvenile board, some covering several counties, which designates juvenile judges, appoints the chief juvenile probation officer and sets probation policy and budget. That is true in Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and Travis Counties alike, and the federal OJJDP case flow overview notes that processing often varies from community to community even within a state.
A few terms recur. A petition is the court filing that alleges the child engaged in delinquent conduct; Texas styles these cases "In the matter of" the child. A detention hearing decides whether a child stays in custody. The adjudication hearing decides whether the child engaged in the conduct alleged. Disposition is what the court orders afterward. Probation is supervision in the community under court conditions. Diversion resolves a case outside the formal court track. A transfer hearing decides whether a case moves to adult court. Sealing restricts access to records.
Detention: What Happens After a Child Is Taken Into Custody
The detention hearing comes quickly in Texas. Under Chapter 54 of the Texas Family Code, if the child has not been released, a detention hearing without a jury must be held promptly, and no later than the second working day after the child is taken into custody; when a child is detained on a Friday or Saturday, the hearing must be held on the first working day after custody. The statute makes one exception to this timing, so the exact schedule depends on the circumstances of the custody.
Before that hearing, the code requires the intake officer, probation officer or other person the juvenile board authorizes to promptly notify the parent, guardian or custodian of where the child is and why the child was taken into custody, unless earlier notice already gave fair notice of the child's whereabouts, according to Chapter 53.
Whether a child is released to a parent, released with conditions or kept in a county juvenile detention center depends on the facts and on the court's findings at that hearing. For a parent waiting through a weekend, it helps to know that the date of the hearing is set by statute, not left open.
The Adjudication Hearing: How Texas Juvenile Court Decides a Case
At the adjudication hearing, the court or a jury decides whether the child engaged in delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision. Chapter 54 provides that in all jury cases, the jury is instructed that the burden is on the state to prove that a child engaged in delinquent conduct or is in need of supervision beyond a reasonable doubt. A child may also be found to have engaged in conduct constituting a lesser included offense.
The result is not a criminal conviction. Under Chapter 51, except as that chapter and another state law provide, an order of adjudication or disposition is not a conviction of crime, does not impose any civil disability ordinarily resulting from a conviction, and does not disqualify the child in any civil service application or appointment. Those exceptions matter, so the protection is real but not unlimited.
If the court or jury finds the child engaged in the conduct, the case moves to disposition. If not, the petition does not lead to a disposition on that conduct.
Disposition: What the Court Can Order
Disposition can range from probation in the community to commitment to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), the state agency that operates Texas's secure juvenile facilities. Under Chapter 54, except as one subsection provides, a court or jury may place a child on probation for any period and may extend it before it ends, but probation may not continue on or after the child's 18th birthday.
For a felony, if the court or jury made a special commitment finding and the petition was not approved by a grand jury, the court may commit the child to TJJD, or to a post-adjudication secure correctional facility as applicable, without a determinate sentence. TJJD explains that this indeterminate commitment is available only for felony offenses and that the youth must be discharged by 19.
Determinate commitments are different. TJJD states that juvenile courts can commit youth with specific sentences of up to 40 years for offenses the Family Code specifies, with a minimum period of confinement set by law based on the offense's severity. A youth who fails to progress in treatment or continues delinquent behavior may be returned to court and ordered transferred to adult prison any time after turning 16 but before turning 19; a youth who succeeds and completes the minimum period may instead transfer to TJJD parole or adult parole, depending on age.
Transfer to Adult Court in Texas
Texas calls this a discretionary transfer, often called certification: the juvenile court waives its jurisdiction and sends the case to adult criminal court. TJJD describes it as the county requesting that a youth be certified as an adult; if a judge grants the request, the person is considered an adult for criminal purposes and is moved to the adult court system.
The conditions in Chapter 54 include that the child was 14 or older at the time of an alleged capital felony, aggravated controlled substance felony or first-degree felony, or 15 or older at the time of an alleged second- or third-degree felony or state jail felony, with no adjudication hearing yet held on that offense. The court must also, after a full investigation and a hearing, determine that there is probable cause to believe the child committed the offense and that, because of the seriousness of the offense or the child's background, the welfare of the community requires criminal proceedings. That transfer hearing is held without a jury.
Nothing about this is automatic. Many parents reasonably fear the words "adult court" more than anything else on this page, and the statute answers with a hearing, an investigation and required findings. Other states handle transfer differently; the general juvenile defense overview and the California juvenile defense and Pennsylvania juvenile defense pages describe those systems.
Diversion and Deferred Prosecution in Texas
Deferred prosecution lets a case be handled through supervision and rehabilitation instead of formal adjudication. Under Chapter 53, if the preliminary investigation shows further proceedings are authorized, the probation officer or other designated officer, subject to the juvenile court's direction, may advise the parties for a reasonable period not to exceed six months concerning deferred prosecution, if conditions are met including that it would be in the interest of the public and the child, and that the child and parent, guardian or custodian consent knowing consent is not obligatory. A prosecuting attorney may defer prosecution for any child. Except as the code otherwise permits, the child may not be detained during or as a result of the process.
Some cases go straight to the prosecutor. Unless the juvenile board approves a different written procedure, a case alleging felony-grade conduct, or a misdemeanor involving violence to a person or a firearm, location-restricted knife, club or prohibited weapon, must be promptly forwarded to the prosecuting attorney.
Because each county's juvenile board sets probation policy, how diversion works in Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar or Travis County depends on that county and on the offense and the child's history. What completion means for the case depends on the terms set in that case.
Sealing a Texas Juvenile Record
Texas provides two routes: sealing without an application, and sealing by application. Under Chapter 58, a person referred to a juvenile probation department for delinquent conduct is entitled to have all related juvenile records sealed without applying to the juvenile court if conditions are met, including being at least 19 years of age. A record is not sealed simply because a child turns 18.
A person may also file an application in the juvenile court served by the probation department to which the person was referred, and the court may not charge a fee to file it. The conditions include being at least 17, or younger than 17 with at least one year elapsed after final discharge in each matter. The chapter treats certain serious delinquent conduct, and a person currently required to register as a sex offender, differently, and those circumstances can affect eligibility. On final discharge, or the last official action if there is no adjudication, the probation officer or TJJD official must give the child and parent a written explanation of sealing eligibility and a copy of the subchapter. Juvenile records covered by the chapter are not subject to expunction.
School, college, employment and other 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 This Site Covers — and What It Does Not
This page covers how a Texas juvenile case moves: detention, adjudication, disposition, transfer, deferred prosecution and record sealing.
It does not cover adult criminal cases except where a child's case is transferred, immigration court, school discipline with no police involvement or charge, federal juvenile matters, or a dependency case in which a parent is accused of abuse or neglect. It states Texas rules only for Texas. Readers whose child faces a felony allegation can find more on juvenile felony defense.
On counsel, Chapter 51 says a child may be represented by an attorney at every stage of proceedings, that the right cannot be waived in certain proceedings, and that a juvenile court finding the family indigent shall appoint an attorney on or before the fifth working day after the petition for adjudication or discretionary transfer hearing was served on the child.
Submitting a Consultation Request
A request is most useful when it describes the case plainly: the child's age, what the child is accused of, whether the child is detained, the date of any detention hearing or court date, and the county where the case is pending, whether Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis or elsewhere in Texas.
A parent does not need the legal vocabulary first. The point of the earlier sections is to make those papers and hearing notices readable.
Discussing Your Child's Texas Case
A Texas juvenile case turns on details that a general page cannot settle: the grade of the alleged offense, the child's age on the date of the conduct, whether a transfer request or deferred prosecution is on the table, and what the county's juvenile board practices are. A consultation can cover the petition, the detention hearing date, whether the child is detained, and the stage the case has reached. This page does not state the rules of any state but Texas or cover adult cases that began in adult court.
To discuss a case like this with an attorney, contact Juvenile Justice Defense Group to request a consultation about a child's juvenile case.