A child charged with a crime is not a small adult, and Texas law — when it is followed properly — treats juvenile cases differently for that reason. The Texas Family Code, not the Penal Code, governs most juvenile proceedings. The vocabulary is different: “petition” instead of indictment, “adjudication” instead of conviction, “disposition” instead of sentencing. The stakes, however, are not smaller. A poorly handled juvenile case can shadow a young person’s college applications, military aspirations, professional licensing, employment background checks, and immigration status for decades. Kent Starr defends juveniles in Collin County and across North Texas with thirty years of trial experience and the personal attention that comes from working with a solo practitioner.
The Texas juvenile system technically applies to children between ages ten and seventeen at the time of the offense. Cases run through specialized juvenile courts in each county, and the procedure differs from adult criminal court in important ways: detention hearings happen quickly, the burden remains beyond a reasonable doubt, but the rules around social history, school records, and probation conditions reflect the system’s stated rehabilitative purpose. Common allegations include drug possession and distribution, assault, school-based offenses, theft, criminal mischief, sexual offenses, and DWI-equivalent offenses. Many of these matters can be resolved without an adjudication — through deferred prosecution, first-offender programs, or negotiated dismissal — when the defense engages early and constructs an alternative narrative for the prosecutor and the court.
The most serious risk in many juvenile cases is certification — the legal process by which a juvenile court waives jurisdiction and transfers a child to adult criminal court under Section 54.02 of the Family Code. Certification is most common in cases involving capital murder, first-degree felonies, and serious violent offenses, and it can apply to children as young as fourteen. A certified juvenile faces the full adult Penal Code, the full range of adult punishment, and the lifelong consequences of an adult conviction. Resisting certification requires a sophisticated combination of psychological evaluation, school and family background presentation, expert witness work, and legal argument. Kent has handled certification fights and the related transfer hearings, and treats them with the same care he brings to any felony jury trial.
Sealing and destruction of juvenile records is another area where careful work pays dividends years later. Texas allows automatic restriction of access for many juvenile records, but the protection is not absolute, and additional sealing may require petition. When the case moves into adulthood, related expunction or nondisclosure work can clear lingering arrest records that still appear on commercial background checks. For families dealing with allegations that overlap into drug crime cases or sexual assault charges, the firm coordinates juvenile and adult defense in the same engagement.
What matters most to the families Kent represents is not the procedural map but the question parents actually ask: what happens to my child? The answer depends on the offense, the prior history, the school’s posture, the assigned prosecutor, and the judge’s track record on similar cases. Kent’s role is to compress that uncertainty into an honest assessment, then build the defense and the mitigation case in parallel — because in juvenile court, the disposition phase is often where the case is truly decided. As a solo practitioner, he handles each step himself; clients and parents are not handed off to a junior associate or a paralegal between hearings. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English, which often matters in family meetings even when court proceedings are conducted in English.
Starr Law P.C. defends juveniles in Collin, Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Rockwall, Kaufman, Ellis, Johnson, and Parker Counties. The firm offers free, confidential consultations for parents and guardians, and treats those conversations with the discretion families need when their child’s name is on a petition.
If your child has been detained, cited, or contacted by a school resource officer or detective, time is short. Call (214) 982-1408 to speak with Kent directly about what the petition says, what the next setting will look like, and what realistic outcomes are available given the facts.
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