The Broken Window
A child's damage and the parent's pocket, discipline at home, and juvenile court
Your son breaks the neighbour's window, on purpose.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Pick one to see what the law says about it.
This walks one broken window. It says nothing about what a juvenile court would order for the child, about insurance, about a claim against the child directly, about what children services does when it opens a case, or about where any real discipline falls on the line.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- DegreeThe classification every Ohio offence carries, from minor misdemeanor up to felony of the first degree. The degree sets the available range before anyone looks at the facts.
- AdjudicationThe juvenile court finding that a child committed the act alleged. It is what that court does instead of convicting, and what follows it is called a disposition rather than a sentence.
- AmenabilityWhether a child can be cared for or rehabilitated within the juvenile system. Where a transfer is discretionary, this is the question the hearing is about.
- Appointed counselCounsel provided at public expense to a defendant who cannot afford one, required in any case where imprisonment is actually imposed.
- BindoverMoving a case out of juvenile court and into adult criminal court. Ohio has a mandatory kind, where eligibility decides it, and a discretionary kind, where a hearing does.
- Probable causeFacts that would lead a reasonable person to believe a crime has been committed and that this person committed it. It is the threshold for an arrest and for a search warrant.
- Sealing and expungementStatutory routes to restrict or destroy the record of a case. Sealing closes the record to most viewers; expungement is the destruction of it. Eligibility depends on the offence and on time elapsed.