Juvenile court standards adopted

Lawmakers passed a bill April 1 that clarifies the rights of individuals appearing in juvenile court.

Under LB894, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, juvenile courts can accept a juvenile’s waiver of right to counsel only on the record in open court and confirmed in writing signed by the juvenile. The court must consider the juvenile’s age, intelligence and emotional stability in determining whether to accept such waiver.

Under no circumstance will a waiver of right to counsel be accepted for a juvenile under age 14 or for a detention hearing, dispositional hearing requiring out-of-home placement or motion to transfer a case from juvenile to adult court.

The bill also requires the juvenile court, when appointing counsel, to do so after a juvenile petition is filed but before the juvenile appears before the court. It also ensures a juvenile’s timely right to counsel.

Law enforcement will be required to use developmentally appropriate language when explaining a juvenile’s right to counsel. The bill also directs the state Supreme Court to establish professional standards by July 1, 2017 for all attorneys practicing in juvenile court.

The provisions of LB894 will apply only to counties with a population of more than 150,000 people. The bill also authorizes the court to find parents in contempt of court if they have accepted free counsel despite an ability to afford such counsel.

LB894 includes provisions of Krist’s LB673 that enable counties to establish internal guardian ad litem divisions, similar to a public defender’s office. A judge has the authority to appoint a guardian outside of a county’s division as he or she sees fit.

Provisions of three additional bills were incorporated into LB894, including:
• LB709, originally introduced by Omaha Sen. Sara Howard, which reclassifies secure and nonsecure detention as detention and alternatives to detention and requires additional court review of such programs;
• LB845, introduced by Pansing Brooks, which requires thorough documentation of each instance of solitary confinement of a juvenile, including the length of confinement and the race, ethnicity age and gender of confined juveniles; and
• LB893, also introduced by Pansing Brooks, which requires that a juvenile be at least 11 years old to be prosecuted or adjudicated for a criminal law violation and gives county juvenile courts jurisdiction of children who are 10 or younger who engage in conduct that otherwise would be considered a law violation.

The bill passed on a 46-0 vote.