New Juvenile Capacity Law: Court Forms and Forensic Evaluators

Beginning with offenses committed on or after January 1, 2025, new laws are in effect regarding the standard and procedures for addressing juvenile capacity to proceed. The new statutes can be found in G.S. 7B-2401-2401.5. You can find blogs about the details of the new standard and procedures here and here. This major revision to the law of juvenile capacity to proceed required new court forms and a new process for credentialing juvenile forensic evaluators. This post details those new structures. New Juvenile Capacity Court Forms The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) released four new forms that can be used when a juvenile’s capacity to proceed is raised in a delinquency matter. AOC-J-260: MOTION QUESTIONING JUVENILE’S CAPACITY TO PROCEED In any delinquency case other than cases subject to mandatory transfer through the return of an indictment the juvenile’s attorney, prosecutor, or court can raise the question of the juvenile’s capacity to proceed at any time through a motion. G.S. 7B-2401.2(a), G.S. 7B-2401(c). The motion must detail the specific conduct that leads the moving party to question the juvenile’s capacity. The AOC-J-260 is the new form for a motion to raise the question of a juvenile’s capacity. AOC-J-261: ORDER APPOINTING QUALIFIED FORENSIC EVALUATOR The procedure for appointing a forensic evaluator in a delinquency matter changed significantly with the enactment of the new law. The court can now only appoint a forensic evaluator who is qualified by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to conduct juvenile [...]