Adjudicated

Elizabetharess

What is the legal term for adjudicated felonies? I know that on some website applications it is asked about convictions but then states not to include adjudicated sentences. My understanding was that an adjudicated conviction/sentence meant that after the completion of a requirement/probation the conviction is taken off as a felony or commuted or some other legal term.
I have a dialogue going on this with another person. The dictionary states any court action?
Elizabeth

System

I'm not sure what you mean, since "adjudicated felonies" is a legal term. Adjudicated basically just means judged. So an adjudicated felony would be a felony where the person was judged guilty, for example, as a result of a guilty plea - the individual wasn't really "convicted" of the felony, because there was no jury trial and no jury to convict, but, upon hearing the individual's guilty plea, the judge "adjudicated" that the person was a felon; i.e., the person's felony status was decided by a judge rather than by way of jury trial. That an individual's felony was the result of adjudication rather than conviction definitely does not imply that that the record of the felony will be expunged or removed or anything like that after completion of the sentence. Again, adjudicated essentially just means judged. The court may adjudicate that someone committed a felony, may adjudicate someone a juvenile for purposes of a criminal trial, may adjudicate someone incompetent to testify on his own behalf, etc.

I'd have to look at the exact language with respect to convictions v. adjudicated sentences to see what the distinction on what the applications ask for actually is. It could be distinguishing between actual convictions v. guilty pleas, or saying that the applicant should just include the crime status and not the sentence imposed, or it could be something different entirely. Like I say, without seeing the exact language, it's hard to tell. Also, it's pretty rare (though not completely unheard of) to see the term "adjudicated convictions" since, as explained above, adjudications typically refer to situations where there was no "conviction" in the pure sense of the word.

Hope this helps?

Elizabetharess

Yes, this does help. Thanks. I never looked it up and took the word of someone else, who was incorrect.

lrobb

Back in the days when I worked in the legal system they used to use ajudicated in reference to juveniles and convictions referred to adults. Juveniles were never said to be convicted only ajudicated.