Also known as: legal ages · age of majority
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An age fixed by statute or common law at which a person acquires full legal capacity to act independently in specified matters. The age of majority is 18 unless an applicable statute provides otherwise. A person below that age who has not been emancipated is a minor for purposes of capacity to contract, make donative transfers, or enter certain relationships.
Luna Lang, age seventeen, hand-wrote a letter directing her structured settlement annuity to her stepbrother after her death. Because she had not reached the age of majority and was not emancipated, the writing had no effect as a will. The court treated the annuity as passing by intestacy to her mother.
Leonard Lowe obtained a child-support order in State A requiring monthly payments for his daughter until she completed college. The daughter turned eighteen while still in high school. The order remained enforceable because the statute defined a child-support order to include a child who had attained the age of majority under the issuing state's law.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Lance Lee and his partner began living together when Lee was seventeen. After Lee turned eighteen they pooled income and shared household duties for two years. When the relationship ended, Lee could pursue a cohabitants' economic claim because both parties had reached the age of majority before the cohabitation period began.
Luis Lopez's genetic mother died leaving a trust for distribution to her children who held commercial driver's licenses. Lopez had lived with and been raised by his mother before turning eighteen. The court included him in the class because his mother had functioned as a parent before he reached the age of majority.
Lamar Lewis, age seventeen, was convicted of homicide and sentenced to life without parole. Because he had not reached the age of majority at the time of the offense, the sentence was later vacated under constitutional limits on mandatory life terms for juveniles.
Lorenzo Lugo, age seventeen at the time of the crime, received a death sentence. The court set the sentence aside because the defendant had not attained the age of majority when the offense occurred, triggering categorical constitutional protection against capital punishment.
The age of majority is 18 unless a statute provides otherwise. A person below that age who has not been emancipated lacks full capacity and may avoid most contracts and cannot make a valid will.
Supporting sources
Yes. A child-support order may extend to a child who has attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing state if the order so provides.
Yes. The definition requires that each individual has reached the age of majority or been emancipated before the cohabitation period begins.
A nonmarital child is treated as a child of the genetic parent for class gifts when the genetic parent or specified relatives functioned as a parent before the child reached the age of majority.
Offenders who have not reached the age of majority receive categorical protection from certain penalties such as mandatory life without parole or the death penalty because of their developmental status.
…gender-based classifications. In Stanton v. Stanton , 421 U.S. 7 (1975), the Court held that a statute that imposed a greater age of majority on males than on females was unconstitutional. The Court held that the statute was not substantially related to the achievement of any important governmental objective. In Weinberger v.…