Legal Question in Juvenile Dependency in Michigan

MCL 333.7411 does not apply to Family Court juvenile delinquency cases (at least that's the position I have taken in my county's cases, and my judges have agreed). It gets down to semantics (words, and their meaning). While there are similarities between adult and juvenile cases, both courts use 'terms of art' that are not used in the other court (e.g., charge vs. offense; defendant vs. respondent, conviction vs. adjudication, etc.). This is key to the question you asked because some laws use terms that speak to both adult court criminal cases and juvenile court delinquency cases, and others (like 7411) use terms that only apply to one of these court systems. MCL 333.7411 has phrases like "has not been previously convicted", or "without entering a judgment of guilt", or "enters a judgment of guilt". Those are all adult court criminal terms, and section 7411 does not otherwise use the parallel delinquency procedure terms. Delinquency cases would refer to "has not been previously adjudicated", or "without entering an adjudication". If MCL 333.7411 said "has not been previously convicted or adjudicated", or "without entering a judgment of guilt or an adjudication", or "enters a judgment of guilt or an adjudication that the minor is responsible for the charged offense", then my opinion would be the opposite because the Legislature is clearly speaking to delinquency proceedings. So, the Legislative intent is interpreted from the words it uses -- and does not use. I have heard complaints from respondents' attorneys that these kids should get the benefit of a process like 7411 in order to keep their records clean. I say that the solution lies with the Legislature, which can always tweak the language of 7411 to include the parallel terms, or just add a sentence that says that this process also applies to delinquency cases. Juvenile court already has a process that can result in offenses being dismissed after successful probation: Consent calendar. But your case may already be past the point when consent calendar is used. Consent calendar, by its terminology, happens before a petition (delinquency charging document) is authorized. Yours has been authorized because you're at a pre-trial conference stage. See if the prosecutor and court will agree to handle your petition on consent calendar. This is similar to 7411 because if you jump through all the hoops you won't have an adjudication, nothing is sent to the Secretary of State, etc.