- Home
- Youth Cases
Youth Cases Lawyer Brampton
If your child has been charged with a criminal offence in Brampton or Peel Region, one thing matters more than anything else you read today. The youth system is built to keep young people out of the permanent record, but the options that make that possible expire, and some of them expire within days.
Vincent Houvardas is a youth cases lawyer in Brampton who has practised at the same Kennedy Road office since 1998. Young people aged 12 to 17 are prosecuted under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, not the ordinary adult process. That Act is deliberately more forgiving than adult criminal law. It also carries strict deadlines, distinct rights, and options that disappear if nobody asks for them in time.
Is it the "Youth Criminal Act" or the Youth Criminal Justice Act?
The correct name is the Youth Criminal Justice Act, usually shortened to the YCJA.
“Youth Criminal Act” is a very common way to refer to it, and most parents searching for help use that phrasing. There is no statute by that name. The law that governs your child’s case is the Youth Criminal Justice Act, S.C. 2002, c. 1, which came into force in 2003 and replaced the old Young Offenders Act.
The distinction matters for a practical reason. Older articles and advice written under the Young Offenders Act describe a system that no longer exists. Anything you read about record periods, diversion, or sentencing under the previous Act is out of date. If you have been searching for a young offender lawyer in Brampton, the same is true – the term survives in everyday use, but the governing law changed more than twenty years ago.
Who the Youth Criminal Justice Act applies to
The Youth Criminal Justice Act applies to anyone who was 12 or older but under 18 at the time of the alleged offence.
Two points surprise most parents:
A child under 12 cannot be charged with a criminal offence in Canada
If police are involved with a child under 12, it is a child-protection or school matter, not a criminal one.
Age at the time of the offence governs, not age today
A 19-year-old charged over something alleged to have happened at 16 is still dealt with under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The Act treats young people differently for a reason. It requires the youth system to be separate from the adult system, based on what Parliament called the principle of diminished moral blameworthiness or culpability, the recognition that a teenager’s judgment is not an adult’s judgment.
That principle shapes every stage of the case, which is why families are usually better served by a youth criminal justice act lawyer in Ontario who works in this system regularly rather than a generalist.
What happens after your child is charged in Brampton
Youth matters in Brampton and across Peel Region are heard at the A. Grenville and William Davis Courthouse, 7755 Hurontario Street. The sequence is:
Arrest or summons
Police either release your child to you with a document requiring a court date, or hold them.
Bail, if they are held
A bail hearing must happen quickly. A responsible adult, usually a parent, normally has to attend court to act as surety. This is the stage where having a lawyer immediately matters most. See our page on bail hearings.
Disclosure
The Crown provides the evidence: police notes, statements, video, witness accounts. Nothing meaningful can be decided before this is reviewed.
Crown pre-trial
Defence counsel meets the Crown to discuss whether the case can be diverted out of court entirely, resolved, or has to be tried.
Resolution or trial
A large share of youth cases never reach step 5. Statistics Canada reports that the proportion of youth court cases stayed or withdrawn rose from 38% in 2007/2008 to 44% in 2016/2017, and Ontario sits at the favourable end of that range, with one of the country’s lowest proportions of guilty findings at 44% in 2014/2015. Statistics Canada also notes that charges are generally stayed or withdrawn on successful completion of extrajudicial sanctions.
Those outcomes are not automatic. They happen because someone made the case for them, in time. A youth court lawyer in Brampton who appears at 7755 Hurontario regularly knows which Crown screens diversion and how quickly an application has to move.
Can my child avoid a criminal record?
Often, yes. This is the most important question for most families, and the YCJA is built around it.
Before a young person is put through court, the Act directs police and Crown to consider extrajudicial measures, responses outside the formal court system. Parliament went further than merely permitting them: the Act states these measures are presumed adequate where a young person has committed a non-violent offence and has no previous finding of guilt.
They fall into two groups:
Extrajudicial measures
Extrajudicial measures are the lightest end. A police warning, a formal police caution, a Crown caution, or a referral to a community program. The case ends there.
Extrajudicial sanctions
Extrajudicial sanctions are a formal diversion program with real conditions: community service, counselling, an apology, restitution, an educational program. On successful completion, the charge is withdrawn. No conviction is registered.
There is a catch parents need to understand before agreeing to anything. A young person generally must accept responsibility for the conduct to enter extrajudicial sanctions. That admission has consequences if the program is not completed. It should never be given before counsel has reviewed the disclosure and confirmed the Crown could actually prove the case.
Do not let your child accept a diversion program before a lawyer has seen the evidence.
Eligibility is not automatic. It turns on the offence, your child’s history, and the Crown’s assessment.
How long does a youth record last?
Youth records are not permanent the way adult records are. Each outcome carries an “access period”, set out in s. 119(2) of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, after which the record is sealed or destroyed, provided there are no further offences.
Outcome
Extrajudicial sanctions
Charge withdrawn or dismissed
Reprimand
Charge stayed (no further proceedings for a year)
Absolute discharge
Conditional discharge
Summary conviction offence
Indictable offence
Access period
2 years from the date your child agreed to the sanction
2 months from the withdrawal or dismissal
2 months from the finding of guilt
1 year
1 year from the finding of guilt
3 years from the finding of guilt
3 years after the sentence has been completed
5 years after the sentence has been completed
Access periods are set out in s. 119(2) of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Three things families consistently get wrong:
A new offence during the access period restarts the clock
The period runs again from the end of the new sentence, and can extend the old record by years.
"Completed sentence" includes probation
Where probation forms part of the sentence, the 3 or 5 years start when probation ends, not on the sentencing date.
An adult conviction during the access period can make a youth record permanent
Under s. 119(9), a young person who is sentenced, rather than reprimanded or discharged, and is then convicted as an adult while the youth record is still open can end up carrying that record indefinitely. This is the trap for a 17-year-old who reoffends at 19.
Youth records can also surface on certain background checks while they remain open. Section 119(1)(o) expressly permits access for criminal record checks required for employment by federal, provincial or municipal government. The outcome your child receives now can matter for a job or a placement three years from today.
Can police question my child without a parent present?
Not freely. Section 146 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act gives young people protections that adults do not have.
Before taking a statement, police must explain to your child, in language appropriate to their age and understanding, each of the following:
- that your child does not have to say anything;
- that anything they do say can be used as evidence;
- that they have the right to consult a lawyer and a parent or another appropriate adult;
- that they have the right to have that person present while any statement is taken.
A young person can waive those rights. But the waiver only counts if it is recorded on video or audio, or set out in writing and signed.
If police get this wrong, the statement is usually inadmissible. In a case resting on what your child said, that can end the prosecution. The Crown must prove compliance beyond a reasonable doubt, a standard the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in R. v. L.T.H., 2008 SCC 49.
What this means practically: if police contact you about your teenager, you may say your child will not give a statement until they have spoken to a lawyer. That is not obstruction. It is the protection the Act was written to provide. Call before, not after.
Will my child go to jail?
In most cases, no. The Act makes custody difficult by design.
Section 39 restricts when a youth justice court may impose custody at all. It is largely reserved for violent offences, repeat failures to comply with non-custodial sentences, and serious indictable matters. The Act also says expressly that custody must not substitute for child protection, mental health, or other social measures.
The realistic range of youth sentences under s. 42 runs from:
- a reprimand, a judicial talking-to, and the case ends
- an absolute or conditional discharge
- a fine, compensation, or restitution
- community service
- probation, with conditions
- intensive support and supervision
- a deferred custody and supervision order, served in the community on conditions
- custody and supervision
Youth sentences are also capped. For most offences the maximum is two years.
Adult sentences. The Crown may apply under s. 64 for a young person to receive an adult sentence. This is only available where the offence was committed at 14 or older and an adult would face more than two years’ imprisonment. Under the Ontario Crown Prosecution Manual, prosecutors are directed to seek an adult sentence for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, and aggravated sexual assault. These applications are serious and contested. They need defending from the first appearance, not the sentencing hearing.
What to do in the first 24 hours
Call a criminal lawyer before your child speaks to police.
This is the one step that cannot be undone later.
Do not let your child explain their side to the officer.
Cooperation and giving a statement are not the same thing.
Ask exactly what the charge is.
Get the officer’s name, badge number, and division.
Find out whether your child is being released or held.
If held, a bail hearing is imminent and you will likely be needed as surety. Bring photo ID and be ready to describe your household.
Write down everything your child remembers that day.
Memory degrades fast, and the details that matter are rarely the obvious ones.
Do not contact the complainant or their family.
It commonly leads to a second charge.
Preserve anything relevant
messages, photos, video, receipts. Delete nothing, even if it looks bad.
Tell the school only what you must.
School discipline runs on a separate track and can generate statements that surface later.
Working with a Youth Cases Lawyer in Brampton
Youth cases are resolved less by argument than by relationships and timing: knowing which Crown screens diversion in Peel, what the local programs will accept, and how quickly an application has to move. Vincent Houvardas has been working on such cases since 1998.
Choosing a youth criminal lawyer in Brampton who appears in Peel youth court regularly is worth more than choosing on hourly rate. The outcome usually turns on what happens before trial, not at it.
More about Vincent Houvardas’ background and practice, or see our fees and answers to common questions.
The office answers the phone 24 hours a day, because arrests do not happen during business hours.
Free consultation with a youth cases lawyer in Brampton. Call (905) 455-9970 any time, or contact us online.
