In California, the juvenile court system is entirely different from the adult court system. It's a different set of rules, different procedures, different legal strategies. There's a lot of lawyers who practice almost exclusively in the adult court. But once in a while, they will take a juvenile case. And when they go juvenile court, they really are fish out of the water. They really have no idea what they're doing. And this is not what you want for your child. Here at Shouse Law Group, all of our attorneys have successfully handled literally hundreds and hundreds of juvenile cases. We know how the juvenile justice system works. And we know how to get your child through it. When we take a juvenile case, we really have two missions: one, of course, is to win the case, to prevent the child from been convicted, or as we say, the petition being sustained. And that's important because, one, we don't want to have your child get a criminal record that could haunt them later in life; and two, we certainly don't want to take the risk that they could be put into custody, in juvenile hall, or a foster home. So first of all, we want to win the case in court. But secondly, we want to help get the child on the right track. Now that might mean getting the child into a different school. It might mean getting the child into counseling. It might mean drug treatment. But we want to figure out what was the underlying cause that got the child, to the teenager, into trouble in the first place, and address that issue. Because ultimately, we're here, not just to get them out of a legal jam, but to put them on track to get an education, and have a career, and stay out of the justice system, both as a juvenile and later as an adult.
