In re J.V.R.

Juvenile Law Center filed a "King's Bench" petition in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in April 2008 on behalf of the hundreds of unrepresented children in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, who had been tried, convicted, and often sent to detention or placement in perfunctory hearings devoid of due process. The application requested that the Court exercise original jurisdiction and order that the unlawful juvenile adjudications be vacated and expunged. An amended petition was filed in December 2008 in the absence of any response from the Court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied the request on January 8, 2009.

On January 29, 2009, after the disclosure that former Luzerne County juvenile court judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael Conahan illegally received kickbacks from the private, for-profit detention facilities to which Ciavarella was sending children, Juvenile Law Center filed an expanded King's Bench petition seeking relief on behalf of all the juveniles he adjudicated or placed between 2003-2008. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted our motion and appointed Special Master Arthur Grim to oversee the litigation. In rulings issued in March 2009, October 2009, and March 2010, the court granted the motions to vacate the adjudications and expunge the records of all the children who Ciavarella had adjudicated. All petitions were ordered dismissed with prejudice; pursuant to these orders, none of the children can be re-tried.

On January 5, 2012, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced that their review of the Luzerne County juvenile court system was complete and returned complete control of the court system to the County. In total, Judge Grim expunged the records of 2,251 juveniles who appeared before former judge Ciavarella.