When It Is A Child
ORC 2152 — a different court, a different vocabulary, one door out of it
The school section on this site ends by saying the juvenile system is a separate court with its own rules and its own vocabulary, and that nothing on that page describes it. This is that page. Almost every word is different, and the differences are not cosmetic.
| Adult court | Juvenile court | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Defendant | Child, alleged to be a delinquent child | The proceeding is about the child rather than about an offence alone |
| Conviction | Adjudication | An adjudication is not a criminal conviction, and questions that ask about convictions are asking something else |
| Sentence | Disposition | The list of what a court may order is its own statute and looks nothing like a sentencing range |
| Guilty plea | Admission | Same function, different word, and the paperwork uses the juvenile one |
The right attaches on the filing of a complaint in juvenile court, or on the initial appearance there. That is earlier than people expect, and it is the reason the first hearing is not a formality.
The other thing that makes this court different is that a case can leave it. Transfer, which everyone calls bindover, moves a child out of juvenile court and into adult criminal court, and once that happens none of the vocabulary above applies any more.
| Kind of transfer | When a child is eligible | What the court does |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory | A category one offence at sixteen or older | Transfer as the transfer section provides |
| Mandatory | Fourteen or fifteen, probable cause for a category one offence, and a prior adjudication for a category one or two offence | Same |
| Discretionary | Fourteen or older, charged with an act that would be a felony if an adult did it, and not subject to mandatory transfer | Follows the transfer section, which includes an amenability hearing |
- Age at the time of the act charged is what the transfer sections run on, not age at the hearing.
- Category one and category two are defined terms, and which list an offence sits on decides which door the case is standing at.
- The dispositions a juvenile court may order are set out in their own section and include things an adult sentencing range has no equivalent of.
Juvenile records, and whether and when they can be sealed or expunged, run on their own sections and are not the adult sealing rules that this site covers elsewhere. Anyone told that a juvenile record simply disappears at eighteen is being told something the statute does not say.
Sources for this section (8)
- ORC 2152.02 — Definitions, including delinquent child
- ORC 2151.352 — Right to counsel in juvenile court
- ORC 2152.19 — Orders of disposition
- Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25 (1972) — No jail sentence without counsel, misdemeanours included
- Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963) — A state must provide counsel to a defendant who cannot afford one
- ORC 2152.10 — Children eligible for mandatory or discretionary transfer
- ORC 2152.12 — Transfer of a case to adult court, and the amenability hearing
- ORC 2953.32 — Sealing or expungement of a conviction, eligibility and waiting periods
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Talk to a licensed Ohio attorney about your situation.