If you’ve been convicted of a crime, it’s natural to hope for a sentence of probation rather than jail time. After all, probation allows you to stay out of the harsh environment of a jail or prison, and you’ll still be able to live your live relatively normally as long as you stay within the guidelines of your probation. However, if you’ve been accused of violating your probation, you could be in for harsh consequences, including hefty fines, added conditions to probation, the loss of a status to keep the incarceration from a public record (if applicable), or even incarceration. It’s a serious situation, and you should know how to deal with it in a way that will protect your rights.
Contact Your Probation Officer
Your probation officer will have a tremendous amount of leeway when deciding how to respond to a potential probation violation. Make sure to contact them early, and have a detailed explanation for what happened. Don’t give excuses, but explain the events in a respectful, apologetic tone. Make sure to have supplemental material and proof to back up your account. If your officer is inclined to be a little bit lenient, you might get off with a warning. If the officer is intent on setting a court date, however, your options start to narrow down quite a bit.
Sometimes the probation officer assigned to you is not flexible and/or not reasonable. Sometimes the probation officer will have a bad attitude, that may or may not have anything to do with the probationer. Sometimes the probation officer is under a lot of pressure from the Court to perform their job, and interact with the probationer, in a certain manner. Sometimes what is needed is the immediate intervention of an experienced probation violation lawyer.
Get in Touch With an Attorney
The most important thing you can do is to get in touch with a probation violation attorney who understands probation law and knows the local courts and the judge that you’ll be facing. A good attorney will give you a solid legal strategy to make sure you’re fighting for the best possible outcome. Your explanation is likely to sound better from an experienced attorney, because the attorney will know how to present your probation violation to the Judge in a manner that will resonate better with the Judge. Sometimes the facts need to be placed in the right context, supported with relevant documentation, in order to garner a favorable outcome. Sometimes the difference between continued probation and jail or prison is the quality of legal representation that you receive.
At Hilf & Hilf, PLC, we understand that you’re only human, and that it can be extremely difficult to follow the stiff guidelines set by the terms of probation. We’ve made a name for ourselves fighting for the rights of men and women just like you, and we have proven legal strategies that will ensure you don’t get railroaded by an overzealous judge. Contact us today!