CHAPTER 353

An Act to amend and reenact § 16.1-162 of the Code of Virginia, relating
to withholding certain records of juvenile courts from public tnspection.
([H 119]
Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

+ That § 16.1-162 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as
ollows:

§ 16.1-162. Every juvenile court shall keep a separate docket, order
book or file for the entries of its orders in cases arising under this law,
and the trial of all such cases shall be held at a different time from the
hearing of other cases in the court. The general public shall be excluded
from all juvenile court hearings and only such persons admitted as the
judge shall deem proper. The presence of the child in court may be waived
by the judge at any stage of the proceedings. Except as hereinafter provid-
ed, the records of all such cases, excepting those involving adults, shall be
withheld from public inspection but they shall be open to the child’s
parents and attorney and to such other persons as the judge or the judge
of a court of record in his discretion decides have a * proper interest

erein; provided, however, that in cases involving criminal offenses by
juveniles, the judge may make public the name of the offender, the names
of the parents of the offender and the nature of the offense, if he deems tt
to be in the public interest.