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If you are under 18, how you are charged maybe more important than what you are charged with.
It is very significant whether you are charged as an adult or a juvenile because if you are charged as an adult, you could go away—you could go away for life, if it is murder for example. If you are charged as a juvenile, then you are not even found guilty of a crime, you are adjudicated as a delinquent.
I handled one case, I remember where a 16 year old had killed his father, bludgeoned him to death with a hammer in cold blood. He was charged as a juvenile, spent a couple of years in psychiatric treatment and his 18th birthday present was freedom.
And in many jurisdictions, you cannot go away for more than until you are aged 18 or aged 21 regardless of what you did because you were a child who was delinquent, who needs to be rehabilitated.
If you are charged with something and you are under 18, then you want a lawyer who can try to get you in Juvenile Court and not an Adult Court because it makes all the difference in the world. They would actually try the case, the same way in both courts. It is just that in the Criminal Court, you are going to be sentenced, which is probably going to be to time in prison, however, if you are in Juvenile Court, instead of the Judge finding you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the Judge would find beyond a reasonable doubt that you are a delinquent. You are considered a naughty child. You are considered a child who needs rehabilitation because you were delinquent, you were naughty, but you do not get a criminal record.
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