The first step in processing the filed affidavit is to determine if there is legal sufficiency. Legal sufficiency includes: 1) if the information stated in the affidavit is proven to be true, do the facts establish a violation of the law; 2) whether the alleged offense is within the statute of limitations; 3) whether the alleged offense occurred within the geographic jurisdiction of the juvenile justice court; and 4) whether the alleged offense is within the legal jurisdiction of the court. Legal sufficiency should be determined before a decision is made regarding whether to proceed formally or to divert. A juvenile justice charge should not be referred for formal processing or informal diversion if the allegation is not legally sufficient.

The JUVENILE JUSTICE GUIDELINES recommends: When juvenile justice courts use intake staff or probation officers to review affidavits and file complaints, misdemeanors and low-risk offenders should be diverted to appropriate interventions. The prosecutor should sign off on a petition prior to filing for gross misdemeanors and felonies, but the prosecutor should also have the option to review any affidavit that the intake officer declined to, and have the ability to override the intake decision. If not well-designed, this process could take significant time to move between the juvenile justice court and prosecutor. The most efficient way to handle this first step in the juvenile justice court process, in order to reduce the length of time between the presentation of the allegation to the juvenile justice court and the youth’s first contact from the formal or informal system, is to have prosecutor-trained and approved staff at the point of initial filing of the affidavit to ensure staff have sufficient legal knowledge to make the decision as to legal sufficiency.

The decision of legal sufficiency, if not made immediately upon the filing of the affidavit (Day 1), should be made in most cases by the end of the next business day (Day 2). There may be some instances where more time is required to make this decision well. It is not an acceptable trade-off to file unnecessarily in order to meet this recommended timeline.

In some juvenile justice courts, all citizens are allowed direct access to the formal juvenile justice court process, and the court will accept all affidavits for formal processing without screening for legal sufficiency. Some juvenile justice courts will accept citizen affidavits after the police have investigated and refused to file. This practice is not recommended because it is not a good use of the juvenile justice court’s resources and can unreasonably require a youth and family to appear before the juvenile justice court. If citizens are complaining that law enforcement is not filing affidavits when they should, the juvenile justice court administrative judge should contact the head of the law enforcement agency and request that a group of citizens, law enforcement, and juvenile justice court representatives be convened to explore the issue and determine what changes, if any, should be recommended. It is more effective and efficient to address a systems issue in this way, as opposed to a case-by-case basis.