§ 303.3 Defenses

If your child is facing a juvenile delinquency case, they have the right to use certain legal defenses to fight the charges. This rule says that young people in family court get the same defenses that adults get in regular criminal court.

These defenses include things like self-defense or defending someone else from harm. They also include situations where someone was forced to act because of threats or pressure (duress), or where police tricked someone into committing a crime they normally wouldn't have committed (entrapment). The rule also covers age-related defenses that can apply based on how old the child was at the time.

In practice, this means a child accused of delinquency isn't limited to just denying they did something. Their lawyer can raise these same defenses that would work in an adult criminal case, and the court must consider them the same way. This gives young people fair protections and a real chance to explain their side of what happened.