This is a really nice compromise. As well as equitable.
The Court of Appeal holds that a court can't tranform a restitution order into a civil judgment if a minor is successfully completes informal supervision, since in such circumstances he's never actually made a ward of the court -- which is required under the statute in order to create the civil judgment. That seems right.
At the same time, the trial court was right that it's crazy to say that a court can order restitution (which it clearly can) and yet not actually require that it be paid. So the Court of Appeal holds that, yes, informal supervision precludes transformation into a civil judgment. But that when a minor, as here, agrees to informal supervision, he may well (as here) be estopped to complain about the civil judgment part.
In short, you can object to having a civil judgment entered. But if you do, then the court's not going to order you to informal supervision. Which means you're never going to object.
Creative. Equitable. Nice resolution.
