Does Nevada provide for free lawyers for juvenile court?

Yes. Nevada public defenders are assigned to children facing delinquency charges in juvenile court in Nevada.

1. Who are public defenders in Nevada?

A public defender is a government-employed attorney who represents indigent defendants facing criminal charges.¹

Nevada counties with populations of at least 100,000 residents are legally required to have public defender offices. Meanwhile, counties with less than 100,000 residents can choose whether or not to have a public defender’s office.

When a county does not have a public defender’s office, the Nevada State Public Defender Office steps in.

A state public defender also steps in when the local public defender has a “legal conflict” and is barred from representing the defendant by the Nevada Rules of Professional Conduct.

In 2008, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the establishment of the Nevada Indigent Defense Standards of Performance. This is meant to improve public defenders’ quality of legal representation by explaining how everyone deserves “zealous advocacy.” ²

2. Are there age requirements for juvenile courts in Nevada?

Yes. Juvenile courts in Nevada have jurisdiction over children under 18 who allegedly broke the law.

However, the child can be certified as an adult and prosecuted in Nevada criminal court for certain serious offenses.³

Note that children under 8 are not subject to punishment in juvenile court. And children aged 8 through 14 are also not subject to discipline unless there is clear proof that they knew of the wrongfulness of their actions at the time of the alleged act.

Learn more about Nevada juvenile delinquency laws.

3. What are juveniles’ rights to representation in Nevada?

Children under 18 get their right to legal representation in juvenile court matters from various sources. These include:

• the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution,
• the Supreme Court case of In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967), and
• NRS 62D.030

Before a child is appointed a public defender, the court must find that the child’s parent or guardian is indigent.

Indigency is generally defined as not having enough resources to hire private counsel. The decision is made jointly by Court Services and the judge presiding over the case. They will consider a parent’s current financial circumstances after examining the party’s financial assets and liabilities.⁴

If a parent or guardian who can pay refuses to hire an attorney, the juvenile court will appoint one for the child. However, the court can then order the parent or guardian to pay for the attorney fees.⁵

Note that juveniles may waive (forfeit) their right to an attorney if the waiver is made knowingly, intelligently, voluntarily, and in accordance with any applicable standards established by the juvenile court.

4. When can a Nevada juvenile record get sealed?

When someone gets adjudged delinquent as a juvenile in Nevada, the delinquency goes on that child’s juvenile record. When the child turns 21, the delinquencies will be automatically sealed from his/her record.⁶

But this holds true unless a charge involved:

• rape,
• battery with intent to rape,
• lewdness with a child, and
• any other violent felony (or threat to use violence).⁷

For these above charges, the child has the burden of petitioning the juvenile court to seal the record in Nevada. And if any of these charges are still on the child’s record by the time he/she reaches 21, he/she will need to wait until age 30 to ask the juvenile court to seal it.

Legal References: