In Virginia, the Juvenile court is a "court not of record" .. so there are no transcripts, no court reporter is present. All you can get copies of are orders entered by the court. Things are typically pretty informal, at least in my county .. they follow standard court procedure but are also flexible with people asking questions etc.
There is a central intake center here that evaluates you before you are committed to juvenile detention .. that is supposed to weed out psychiatric problems etc. I don't have a lot of faith in it, though, based on what I've heard from others who've had kids that go there. Then again, that was about 4 years ago... it might be better now.
