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Cal. WIC § 353

This is the official text of Cal. WIC § 353, part of California’s Welfare and Institutions Code — governs public social services, juvenile justice, and mental health/developmental disability services.

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Official statutory text

At the beginning of the hearing on a petition filed pursuant to Article 8 (commencing with Section 325) of this chapter, the judge or clerk shall first read the petition to those present. Upon request of any parent, guardian, or adult relative, counsel for the minor, or the minor, if he or she is present, the judge shall explain any term of allegation contained therein and the nature of the hearing, its procedures, and possible consequences. The judge shall ascertain whether the parent, guardian, or adult relative and, when required by Section 317, the minor have been informed of their right to be represented by counsel, and if not, the judge shall advise those persons, if present, of the right to have counsel present and where applicable, of the right to appointed counsel. If such a person is unable to afford counsel and desires to be represented by counsel, the court shall appoint counsel in accordance with Section 317. The court shall continue the hearing for not to exceed seven days, as necessary to make an appointment of counsel, or to enable counsel to acquaint himself or herself with the case, or to determine whether the parent or guardian or adult relative is unable to afford counsel at his or her own expense, and shall continue the hearing as necessary to provide reasonable opportunity for the minor and the parent or guardian or adult relative to prepare for the hearing.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.