 Hi, I'm David Cantor with the Law Offices of David Michael Cantor today. I'm going to talk about probation violations Now there's a chronology to these first thing that happens if you're on probation and if they think that you violated the PO a probation officer is going to file a petition to revoke probation now He's going to base it on a violation of one of your terms if they say you committed a new crime That's called a term one violation if you abscond or fail you to show up at meetings if you possess a firearm That's also a term one violation if that occurs now You're at risk for mandatory prison time and go to our site DM Cantor comm and that's called misconduct involving weapon And we can talk to you about that or felon possessing a firearm if you fail a UA If you possess or consume alcohol or illegal drugs if you drive illegally all of these can be Reasons for petition revoke the second stage after they take you into custody you will be non-bondable that means no matter How much money you have they can't give you bond unless the judge says so they will do a probation violation Arraignment and that's where the judge says okay non-bondable or you know what I'm going to release you on your own Recognizance this doesn't happen a whole lot, and it's very difficult, but we've done that They release you and then at a later date you go to the next Hearing now what we try to do at this level is we try for a disposition agreement on a technical violation We what that means is we go in prior to the hearing we talk to the PO and we say look if and we talk to the prosecutor If he admits that he missed a few meetings will you go ahead? Reinstate him on probation and let him get out of custody or maybe give him a little bit longer probation Something of that nature anything other than prison now at the probation violation hearing that's the next thing if we don't have an agreement Then there's a trial Regarding the various allegations on the violation now you have to be aware because hearsay is allowed So it's really easy for them to make their burden of proof Now if you are found that you violated probation the judge will set it to a probation violation Disposition if we cut a deal at the arraignment we do the disposition on the spot, and then you're out if we can't and it's up to the Judge what's the judge going to do give you more probation or send you to prison? We're going to set it to the probation violation disposition hearing and we're going to present mitigating evidence What we will do is we'll ask that you be reinstated on probation Maybe with a little bit more time or maybe what's called IPS that's intensive probation services if they ultimately Decide they're going to revoke you they'll send you to prison now believe it or not We've had clients who say you know what I can't take it anymore Go ahead and negotiate the lowest amount of prison time you can get me just tell them to revoke me And we've done that where people have actually only had to serve a month or two Remaining to fill a prison sentence, and then they're off probation forever So there's a lot of ways we can approach this So if you or a loved one have been charged with a probation violation contact our office We'll do a free initial consultation doesn't cost you anything, but it takes about 30 minutes You can talk to us. We have multiple certified criminal law specialists, and we love to help you out