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•You must be 21 to possess, use or buy alcoholic beverages. |
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•You must be 21 to serve on a jury. |
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•You must be 18 to get married without your parents’ permission. If you are under 15, you must receive permission from a judge to get married. |
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•You may vote at 18. |
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•At age 18, you may sue someone in court and someone may sue you. |
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•You may make a will, sign a contract and sign a lease at age 18. |
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•At age 18, if you are a male, you must register for military service. |
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•You must be at least age 18 to consent to your own medical treatment. If you are under 18 years of age, you must have your parents’ permission for any kind of medical treatment, including abortion. There are a few exceptions to this law. Some hospitals or clinics allow you to consent to your own testing and treatment for pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, drug and alcohol abuse or AIDS at any age. Others allow you to consent to your own treatment only if you have reached age 13. If you are younger than 18 but are married or in the military, you are considered emancipated, or on your own, and you may seek medical treatment without your parents’ permission. |
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•You may be tried as an adult for any crime for which you are charged at age 17 or older. If you commit an offense at age 16 or younger, the police will refer your case to the family court. At any age, if you are alleged to have committed a serious offense such as murder, sale of drugs, robbery, rape or assault, or if you are a repeat offender, the family court may certify you as an adult and transfer you to the adult criminal system. At age 12, the family court can also certify you as an adult for other serious crimes, such as stealing a car, drug possession and carrying a weapon. |
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•At age 16, you may get a driver’s license; at 15 1/2, you may get a special license to drive with a licensed adult driver.. |
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•At age 15 1/2, you are treated as an adult under Missouri’s traffic laws. |
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•At any age, if you are the victim of a crime, you have the right to be paid for damages done to you and to attend any hearings and trials about a case arising from the crime. If the person who committed the crime against you is a juvenile, you may attend the hearings in family court. If the person who committed the crime against you is an adult or will be tried as an adult, you may go to the hearings and the trial in circuit court. |
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