Can my child be tried as an adult in Pennsylvania?

Yes, two ways. Murder charges — and certain violent offenses committed at 15 or older with a deadly weapon — start automatically in adult court. Otherwise, prosecutors can ask a judge to transfer a child 14 or older charged with a felony. A juvenile charged as an adult can petition for decertification back to juvenile court, where the defense builds the case that the juvenile system can work.

How is juvenile court different from adult court?

Juvenile court aims at rehabilitation: a judge, not a jury, decides the case, and outcomes are dispositions — probation, treatment, or placement — lasting no later than age 21. Adult court means public proceedings, jury trials, exposure up to the statutory maximum, and a permanent public criminal record. The Commonwealth must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt in both.

Will the school find out about my child's case?

Usually, yes. Pennsylvania's Safe Schools laws require information sharing between courts, probation, and school districts for certain offenses. School discipline — suspension, expulsion, or alternative placement — can proceed separately from the court case, so both tracks need attention at the same time.

Juvenile Defense | Yakubu Law

Q: Will my child's juvenile record disappear automatically?

No — that is a common myth. Juvenile records are confidential but remain until a court orders expungement. Dismissed cases and completed diversions can be expunged within months; misdemeanor-level adjudications generally after two clean years, felony-level after five. Someone must file for expungement — and serious sexual offenses committed at 14 or older cannot be expunged.

A different system with different stakes

Juvenile court is built around rehabilitation, not punishment — and the vocabulary reflects the difference. Children aged 10 through 17 face delinquency petitions, not criminal charges; adjudications, not convictions; dispositions, not sentences. A judge decides the case without a jury, the Commonwealth must still prove its allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, and outcomes range from probation and treatment to placement, with supervision possible until age 21. Most hearings are closed to the public.

The system's flexibility is also its opportunity. Informal adjustment can resolve a case before a petition is ever filed, and a consent decree suspends the case entirely — both end with no adjudication at all and fast expungement eligibility. Early involvement, before charging decisions harden, is where these outcomes get built.

When a child faces adult court

Murder charges start in adult court at any age, and certain violent offenses committed at 15 or older with a deadly weapon do as well. For everything else, prosecutors can petition to transfer a child 14 or older charged with a felony — and the fight over that motion, or over decertification back to juvenile court for a child charged as an adult, is often the whole case. The difference is stark: juvenile supervision ending at 21 versus adult exposure up to twenty years and a permanent public record.

Decertification is a buildable case. School records, trauma and mental-health evaluations, expert testimony on adolescent development, and concrete treatment plans are the evidence that meets the child's burden of showing the juvenile system can work. That record has to be assembled quickly and deliberately — while the client waits, it is the defense that carries the case forward.

The record does not erase itself — and school runs on its own track

The most persistent myth in juvenile law is that records disappear at 18. They do not. Juvenile records are confidential but exist until a court orders expungement: dismissed cases and completed diversions can be expunged within months, misdemeanor-level adjudications generally after two clean years, felony-level after five — and someone must actually file. Serious sexual offenses committed at 14 or older cannot be expunged at all. Unexpunged records can surface in FBI fingerprint checks, military enlistment, and licensing.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania's Safe Schools laws require information sharing between courts, probation, and school districts, so school discipline — suspension, expulsion, alternative placement — often proceeds in parallel with the court case. Defending a juvenile means managing both tracks at once, because a good court outcome can be undone by an unmanaged school one.