Session Law 2024-17 contains several changes to delinquency law and new penalties for soliciting a minor to commit an offense. I covered the changes related to juvenile jurisdiction and the transfer process in last month’s blog. This blog explains the remaining changes. They include modifications to the timelines for secure custody hearings and for a victim or a complainant to request prosecutor review of a decision not to file a petition, school notification of the filing of a felony delinquency petition, restitution as a dispositional alternative, and the crime of soliciting a minor to commit an offense. These changes will take effect beginning with offenses committed on or after December 1, 2024.

Secure Custody Hearing Timeline

If a juvenile is held in confinement pending resolution of their delinquency petition, they are held pursuant to a secure custody order. The Juvenile Code requires that a juvenile who is in secure custody has the regular opportunity to return to court for hearings on the need for continued custody. G.S. 7B-1906(b), (b1). An initial hearing is required within five calendar days of issuance of the secure custody order (or, if the initial order was issued by a court counselor pursuant to an administrative order allowing for delegated authority, on the next regularly scheduled session of district court). G.S. 7B-1906(a). The initial hearing cannot be waived or continued. G.S. 7B-1906(a). The law related to this initial hearing is not changing.

Following the initial hearing, ongoing hearings to determine the need for continued custody are currently required to be held every ten days in most cases. G.S. 7B-1906(b). Cases that are subject to mandatory transfer are the exception to the current rule and require an ongoing hearing to determine the need for continued custody every thirty days. The juvenile can request, and the court can order, a ten-day schedule. G.S. 7B-1906(b1). All ongoing hearings, whether on a ten-day or thirty-day schedule, can be waived with the consent of the juvenile. G.S. 7B-1906(b), (b1).

Beginning with offenses committed on December 1, 2024, the default ongoing secure custody hearing timeline for all cases will be every thirty calendar days. S.L. 2024-17 §5. A party can request an earlier hearing. If such a request is made, the hearing must be scheduled within ten calendar days of the date of the request. The court also has the authority to order an earlier hearing on its own. The juvenile will continue to have the ability to waive these ongoing hearings.

Expanded Time to Request Prosecutor Review of Decision Not to File a Petition

Juvenile cases begin with an intake process conducted by the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). G.S. 7B-1700. That process includes a preliminary inquiry to assess the applicability of juvenile jurisdiction, legal sufficiency, and whether the matters are frivolous. G.S. 7B-1701(a). If the allegations fall properly within juvenile jurisdiction, are legally sufficient, and are not frivolous, DJJ determines whether the case should be filed as a petition, diverted, or closed. G.S. 7B-1702. The Juvenile Code requires that cases with certain charges must be filed as a petition. G.S. 7B-1701(a). In all other cases, DJJ conducts an evaluation and decides whether to file a petition.

DJJ is required to notify the complainant and the victim in writing if a determination is made not to file a petition in a case. G.S. 7B-1703(c). Under current law, the complainant and the victim each have five calendar days from receipt of this notification to request that the prosecutor review the decision not to file a petition. G.S. 7B-1704. Beginning with offenses committed on December 1, 2024, the complainant and the victim will each have ten working days from receipt of the notice to request prosecutorial review of the decision not to file a petition. The prosecutor will also have the ability to waive this timeline. S.L. 2024-17 §11.5.

School Notification of Delinquency Petition

Under existing law, DJJ is required to provide notification to the principal of the juvenile’s school any time a petition alleging a felony is filed. G.S. 7B-3101(a)(1). I previously blogged about the details of the school notification law here. Sections 4.(a) and 4.(b) of S.L. 2024-17 make two changes to the existing law.

1. Beginning with offenses committed on December 1, 2024, school notification will occur when a petition alleging a Class A – E felony is filed. School notification at the time the petition is filed will no longer be allowed for Class F – I felonies.
2. Once notification of the filing of a petition alleging a Class A – E felony is provided, the principal must make an individualized decision related to the status of the student during the pendency of the delinquency proceeding. Automatic suspension policies based on the notification will be prohibited.

Permissive Joint and Several Responsibility for Restitution

As explained by the North Carolina Court of Appeals in In re D.A.Q., 214 N.C.App. 535, 539 (2011), joint and several liability means that when there are multiple juveniles who participated in the offense, one juvenile can be held responsible for the entire amount of restitution owed. Under current law, when a dispositional order includes restitution and the juvenile participated with someone else or multiple other people, the juvenile is supposed to be jointly and severally responsible for the total amount of restitution. Beginning with offenses committed on December 1, 2024, use of joint and several responsibility for payment of restitution will be optional. The court will need to make a determination regarding the use of joint and several responsibility when ordering restitution. S.L. 2024-17 §10.

Punishment for Solicitation of a Minor to Commit an Offense

There are currently a range of punishments for solicitation of a person by another person to commit an offense. G.S. 14-2.6. Section 11 of S.L. 2024-17 differentiates punishments for 1) solicitation of an adult by an adult or minor to commit an offense, 2) solicitation of a minor by a minor to commit an offense, and 3) solicitation of a minor by an adult to commit an offense. An adult is defined as someone who is age 18 or older and a minor is defined as a person who has not reached the age of 18 years.

The punishments for the first two categories of solicitation (1. of an adult by a minor or an adult and 2. of a minor by a minor) match the punishments in the current law. Those punishments are reflected in the chart below.

Beginning with offenses committed on December 1, 2024, the punishment for an adult who solicits a minor to commit a felony or misdemeanor will be the same class felony or misdemeanor as the offense the adult solicited the minor to commit.

Be Mindful of the Effective Date

The changes described in this post and in my post from last month take effect beginning with offenses committed on December 1^st of this year. Given the length of time needed to process cases and the reality that cases in which disposition is ordered often remain under juvenile jurisdiction for many months or years, there will be active delinquency cases subject to the current law for some time. It will be important to identify the offense date in each case to know whether current law or the law as changed by S.L. 2024-17 applies.

More Change to Come

Significant changes to the law governing juvenile capacity to proceed are set to take effect on January 1, 2025. Stay tuned to the blog over the next couple of months for discussion of the new juvenile capacity standard and procedure as well as a new possibility for juvenile remediation services.