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Our guide to juvenile criminal defense in Nevada promised a closer look at certification, the process that decides whether your child’s case stays in juvenile court or moves to adult court. This is that closer look. A juvenile tried as an adult in Nevada faces a different courtroom, a different judge, and a different set of consequences than a case that stays where it started.
The path there depends on two mechanisms that most explanations blur together. One removes juvenile court jurisdiction automatically, while the other requires a hearing even when the outcome feels preordained. Knowing which one applies to your child’s case changes what your defense attorney can actually argue.
The Defense Firm handles certification hearings across Clark County. The distinction below is the one piece of this process most parents research and still get wrong, partly because our own broader guide simplifies it too. Getting it right matters, because the two paths leave different room for a defense.
The Two Paths That Move a Case Out of Juvenile Court in Nevada
A case involving a child age 16 or older charged with murder or attempted murder never enters juvenile court in the first place. Under NRS 62B.330, that conduct is excluded from juvenile jurisdiction by definition, so the case is filed directly in adult criminal court. No hearing decides it. No judge weighs factors. The exclusion applies the moment the charge is filed.
Every other route to adult court runs through certification under NRS 62B.390, and certification always involves a hearing, even when the law leaves the judge no real choice. A child aged 13 to 15 charged with murder or attempted murder falls into this second category rather than the first, since the automatic exclusion only reaches children 16 and older. The district attorney still has to move for certification, and a full investigation still happens, but the judge has no discretion to keep the case in juvenile court once the motion is filed. The same mandatory outcome applies to a child 16 or older charged with a sexual assault involving force or violence, or with an offense involving a firearm. Everything else, meaning any other felony-level conduct by a child 14 or older, goes through discretionary certification, where the judge actually decides.
The Age and Offense Combinations That Decide the Outcome
Parents searching this topic usually want one number: how old does my child have to be? The honest answer depends on the charged offense as much as the age. A 14- or 15-year-old accused of grand larceny or burglary faces a discretionary hearing where the judge weighs the case on its merits. A 14- or 15-year-old accused of murder faces a hearing with a mandatory certification outcome baked in before the first witness testifies. A 17-year-old accused of a firearm offense faces the same mandatory outcome as that 14-year-old murder suspect, just under a different statutory trigger.
This is where the firm’s own broader guide oversimplifies the picture, and it’s worth naming directly rather than pretending the distinction doesn’t matter. That guide describes murder and attempted murder as excluded from juvenile jurisdiction “once a child is 13 or older.” The exclusion under NRS 62B.330 actually applies at 16 and older. Below that age, a 13-, 14-, or 15-year-old charged with murder still goes through a certification hearing under NRS 62B.390, not an automatic exclusion. The practical result looks the same from the outside, since both paths end with the case in adult court. But only one of them involves a hearing, and a hearing is a proceeding a defense attorney can still show up to and shape, even against a mandatory outcome.
Murder and Attempted Murder Charges That Skip the Hearing Entirely
The 16-and-older exclusion under NRS 62B.330 leaves no procedural entry point for the defense at the juvenile-court stage, because there’s no juvenile-court stage to enter. A murder charge against a 16-year-old starts in the same courtroom, under the same rules of evidence, as a charge against a 40-year-old. Anyone building a defense strategy in that situation should read the firm’s strategies for defending juvenile murder charges in Nevada. The defense work in these cases happens entirely inside the adult criminal system, not at a certification stage that never occurs.
Inside a Certification Hearing
A certification hearing starts with a motion from the district attorney, filed after what the statute calls a full investigation. For discretionary certification under NRS 62B.390’s first standard, Nevada courts apply a three-factor test drawn from the state’s certification case law.
The first factor is the nature and seriousness of the charged offense. The second is the persistence and seriousness of the child’s past adjudicated or admitted conduct. The third covers personal considerations: age, maturity, character, and whether any substance abuse or emotional or behavioral problems the child has are treatable through the juvenile court’s own jurisdiction. Case law treats that third factor as secondary to the first two on its own, but it becomes the deciding factor in close cases, which is exactly where a defense attorney’s preparation matters most.
Even the mandatory certification track under NRS 62B.390’s second standard, covering the murder-under-16 bucket and the sexual assault or firearm bucket, carries two statutory exceptions. The court must not certify a child if clear and convincing evidence shows the child is developmentally or mentally incompetent to understand the situation and proceedings, or to help their attorney. The court also must not certify if the child’s conduct was substantially the result of substance abuse or emotional or behavioral problems that the juvenile system can appropriately treat. Both exceptions require the defense to build a record before the hearing, not during it.
Building a Defense to Keep a Case in Juvenile Court
The strongest certification defense starts before the motion is even filed. A treatment history that shows a documented, ongoing response to counseling speaks directly to the third factor in the discretionary test and to both statutory exceptions in the mandatory track. School records showing a child’s baseline functioning, a formal psychological evaluation, and the absence of any prior delinquent act all build toward the same goal. Together, they can show a judge, or support a mandatory-track exception, that this child is a fundamentally different case than the offense alone suggests.
Whether the underlying charge even qualifies as a felony matters just as much as any of that. Nevada draws the felony line by statute, not by how serious a charge feels at the moment. Certification under NRS 62B.390’s first standard only reaches conduct that would be a felony if an adult committed it. Parents unsure whether their child’s charge clears that bar should read the firm’s breakdown of how Nevada classifies felonies versus misdemeanors before assuming certification is even a live question.
Early representation changes what’s possible here. A defense attorney retained before charges are filed has more time to assemble the treatment and school records that a judge or a mandatory-track exception actually requires.
What Changes Once a Case Reaches Adult Court
A juvenile tried as an adult in Nevada loses the juvenile system’s core structural protections. There’s no jury in juvenile court, but there is one in adult court, for better or worse depending on the case. Adult court runs on punishment rather than rehabilitation as its stated purpose, and a conviction is a criminal conviction rather than an adjudication, carrying civil disabilities that a juvenile disposition does not.
One outcome difference gets buried in most coverage of this topic, and it’s worth pulling forward here. NRS 176.017requires a sentencing court to weigh the differences between juvenile and adult offenders, including a juvenile’s diminished culpability, whenever someone is convicted as an adult for conduct committed before turning 18. Based on that finding, the court may reduce any mandatory minimum period of incarceration by up to 35 percent, at its own discretion, if the reduction fits the person’s age and rehabilitation prospects. That authority doesn’t undo a certification decision. It’s the one concrete lever left once a case has already moved to adult court, and a defense attorney should raise it at sentencing regardless of how the certification fight went.
Records diverge just as sharply. A juvenile record generally seals automatically at 21 under Nevada law, at no cost and without a petition. An adult conviction requires active record sealing that runs on a slower statutory clock, and some convictions carry far longer waits than others.
Families juggling an older, separate conviction on a parent’s own record while a child’s certification case moves forward should also look into working with an expungement attorney to handle that piece independently. If disposition in adult court includes probation, the firm’s guide to warning signs you need a probation violation attorney applies just as much to a certified juvenile case as it does to any adult one. For the fuller picture of what a juvenile record looks like when a case stays in the juvenile system, see our broader guide to juvenile criminal defense in Nevada, linked above.
Reversing a Certification Decision
A child certified for adult prosecution can petition to move the case back to juvenile court, but only on a showing of exceptional circumstances, and that bar sits high by design. This is not a backup plan worth counting on going into a certification hearing. It exists for genuinely unusual situations that surface after the fact, not for a family that simply disagrees with how the first hearing went. The statute doesn’t spell out a fixed list of what counts, which leaves the adult court weighing the same kind of case-specific facts a certification hearing already considered, only now with the burden on the defense to show something changed. The better use of resources is almost always building the strongest possible record before certification is decided, not planning around a reversal that rarely succeeds.
FAQ
Can a 13-year-old be tried as an adult in Nevada?
Yes, but only for murder or attempted murder, and only through a mandatory certification hearing under NRS 62B.390 rather than the automatic exclusion that applies at 16 and older under NRS 62B.330. The hearing still happens; the judge simply lacks discretion over the outcome for that specific charge.
Can a juvenile certification decision be appealed?
A certified case can be sent back to juvenile court only through a petition showing exceptional circumstances, and Nevada courts grant that rarely. Treat it as a narrow safety valve for unusual situations that emerge later, not as a routine appeal process built into every certification.
Does a juvenile record still exist after a case is certified to adult court?
Any record from before certification stays tied to the juvenile proceeding and follows juvenile sealing rules, while the adult case that follows certification creates its own separate adult record on a much slower sealing timeline. Our broader juvenile criminal defense guide, linked at the top of this piece, covers what happens to the juvenile-side record specifically.
Conclusion
A juvenile certification hearing in Nevada can determine whether a child remains in a system focused on rehabilitation or faces prosecution and sentencing in adult court. The outcome may depend on the child’s age, the charged offense, prior history, treatment needs, psychological condition, school records, and the strength of the evidence supporting the certification request. Because the most important record is often built immediately after an arrest, early preparation can make a meaningful difference in both discretionary and mandatory certification cases.
If your child is facing a certification motion, felony charge, murder allegation, sexual assault accusation, or firearm-related offense anywhere in Clark County, contact The Defense Firm as soon as possible. Our attorneys can review which certification pathway applies, gather the records needed to support available exceptions, challenge the underlying charge, and present the strongest possible case for keeping the matter in juvenile court. Contact The Defense Firm for a free, confidential consultation to discuss your child’s case and begin protecting their rights, freedom, and future.