Attorneys were recruited for the study from a pool of juvenile public defenders practicing in and around a large urban area of the eastern United States. Each attorney was asked to choose one youth whom he/she had represented over the past year whose case was completed and whom the attorney had some difficulty representing for reasons related to the youth's capacities to participate as a defendant in the trial process. A total of 10 attorneys participated in the study; interviews were also conducted with the 10 youths the attorneys identified. Interviews were interpreted qualitatively to examine the characteristics of the youths and the nature of youths' deficits, as well as to generate examples of problems faced by youths and attorneys in representing this population. Attorneys were found to be more concerned about their clients' abilities to make autonomous decisions than their abilities to understand the trial process. Most of the youths interviewed were in middle adolescence but experienced a variety of cognitive and emotional problems. Implications are drawn for future research and for attorney and judicial training. 13 references