For each part of the record in a juvenile protection case, whose signature and seal must the file show?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a juvenile case file, the papers to read are the investigation record and the hearing record, checking whose name appears on each and whether that person has both signed and sealed, and the record's statements of the content of the investigation and hearing, all decisions and the other necessary matters, which the juvenile department court staff write up.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading follows the division the provision draws by record type: the investigation record must be signed and sealed by the investigator together with a court clerk of the grades listed, while the hearing record must be signed and sealed by a judge of the juvenile department court together with a clerk of those grades, so the file has to show both acting persons on each record.
Another reading notes that the listed clerk grades are joined as alternatives as to who may act, yet each designated person must both sign and seal the record, so one act alone does not meet the duty; the provision leaves open what follows where a required signing and sealing is missing, and says nothing about a party's access to the record.
Your judgment
If a record bears the clerk's signature and seal but not the investigator's, what in the file would show whether that record was nevertheless treated as complete?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change who must sign and seal each record, or if a court decision sets what follows from a record missing a required signing and sealing.