ok, i made a new post because this question is urgent and i cant afford to have it overlooked in my other thread

my parents are willing to pay for a lawyer for me to accompany me to my court hearing on the 9th this month for probation violation. ive completed all the terms asked of me by my P.O. and have been told now its basically in the hands of the judge

i dont want to waste my parents money on this lawyer if hes not really going to have any special tricks to help me, not to mention id have to take about a 2 hour round trip just to meet with the guy and that will cut into the last of my community service that im doing today.

my feeling is that my actions will speak best for me and that i will be the same with/without representation

what is your guys advice?

KInd of depends on what happens if the prosecution tries to bring up any new garbage. If he did you would need an attorney. But If the charge wasn't too serious I would risk it without an attorney. If the prosecution or judge should bring up anything new just request an extension and say you need to talk to attorney first. Most judges will grant an extension. They do it for the prosecution all the time.

and its hard to say it also depends on your original charges and the violation.
i had a couple of ftas to community service was violatedand wen i went to court the judge saw i completed half a year he kinda laughed and said ur doing alright do u want to continue ur c.s. said yeah and that was it
but i live in california

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Yup, I agree it depends on the original charges and what the original sentence would have been without taking probation instead.
My philosophy is, if you THINK you need a lawyer, you NEED a lawyer.
How is your relationship with your PO? This is IMPORTANT, as you may imagine. Your PO can be your ally if he or she believes you are in fact following through- however if you are screwing up, especially if you had warnings before, why would they stick up for you? Did you do something that COULD have resulted in a violation earlier? Does your PO have a reason to tell the judge, "Go easy, this dude is trying"?
Think about all of that, talk to your PO. My advice is that if you have any doubts, even the state-appointed lawyer is better than nothing.

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im sorry guys, i posted pretty hastily earlier. i was trying to get to that CS so i could get it done

so heres the scoop on my initial charges. im looking at the origional paperwork right now and it says: "Offense: CONT SUBS-POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA" and then "judegment of guilt is deferred under: MCL 333.7411, Controlled Substance Act"

if you dont know what 7411 is, it basically means this was my first offense and because of that, they automatically put me on a diversion plan (aka probation) with the stipulation that at the end of the 6 months i would get the charge expunged.

as for my violations, i had 2 for no shows(not fails. i currently have no fails on my record)1 for not paying my fines(payed today), 1 for not doing community service(finished today) and 1 for not getting a substance abuse assessment(scheduled tomorrow).

now with this in mind, and the fact that since the last time they saw me ive cut my hair, gotten a job, pay for my own apartment now and will(god willing) be able to piss clean on thursday if they ask me to [sidenote:what are the odds of that happening???]; what do you think my odds are of just getting maybe a 3 months extension or something? cause i can totally do that. im pissed at myself for fucking up and i love weed but weed will always be there. it always has been so, needless to say, i think ill live without it for a bit

also kind of a p.s. i called my P.O. today and told him that my rents wanted to get me a lawyer and i asked him if he thought it was even necessary. i forgot hes not allowed to give me legal advice, but he told me that and then said "but...i dont really see what hes going to do for you if you follow through on your end" and he cut it off there. hes already told me he doesnt even know what im facing, but that kind of comforted me

i called the lawyer today anyway and he was a bag of douche. he wouldnt even hear any details of my situation unless i drove all the way to portage, so i didnt go cause it was a gamble. i wouldnt have gotten my CS done today if i had done that and something tells me thats more important. but hell thats why im asking you guys.

sorry for the hella long post, but now youre pretty much totally informed and hopefully that can let those with experience/knowledge with the law give me a slightly better answer

I would definitely get a lawyer.....especially if ur p's have no problem paying.... sometimes if u go and dont have a lawyer it backfires and the judge can look at it as "he must not care that much, he doesnt even have a lawyer".... i dont think the charges are really that serious but its always better to have a lawyer. Now as for him being a douche, u might should get a different one lol but alot of them are like that and wont even open the police report or file until u write a check. Even if ur PO said he doesnt see what he'll do for u, that just sounds like he doesnt know what hes talking about... like i said if ur p's will pay...get a lawyer it cant do any harm and can only help,,,just my .02$ but good luck dude!

thanks man. the only things keeping me from calling said douche are the fact that i kind of does hurt. my rents say otherwise and that they just want me to be protected, but my dads bills for CF(cystic fibrosis) are no mystery to me. my parents are pretty strapped for cash at the moment and i just have some level of guilt there. plus the fact that i kind of feel secure right now. ive changed my ways, ive payed my fees, and if asked ill confidently piss for them [gonna buy strips tomorrow after work just to make sure]

i mean dont you think that after dealing with drug traffickers, DUIers with suspended licenses and prob. violators who just DON'T complete their end of the bargains all day, they might see my case and say "ok good. you did what we asked and (given they have my old mugshot attached to the file) you look much cleaner now." i mean im not saying im off scotch free or anything but i imagine i must be kind of a breath of fresh air to them maybe?

not to mention this guy will only have a day to meet me, review my case and find a solution seeing as i cant meet with him tomorrow

there has to be someone here who violated their probation?!? i just cant put my mind to rest until someone can tell me what the odds are of things like license revocation even after completing the violation counts i could. mods?! you dudes are intelligent. someone have a dialogue with me here! i know it depends on my judge but there has to be a normal punishment for this. or at least something to expect. standard procedure even?!

Ive never violated probation (yet) but id say the odds of anything negative happening like license revocation are a lot higher without an attorney. I kno its not the answer u want and i understand uve cleaned up and theyll see that but i dont think that matters so much...Id do whatever u can to have a lawyer representing you....better safe then sorry, if the guilt of having ur p's dish out the dough for u is overwhelming then u can always pay them back...like someone already stated, if u think u need a lawyer, u probly do. I'd be making some phone calls first thing tomorrow

what exactly do you think hes gonna invoke that will deter my judge from ruling those bad things on me if he wants to anyway?

im not trying to be argumentative, im just curious as to what exactly youre talking about here. i know a lawyer looks good, but the bottom line here is how ive represented myself outside of court and whether or not ive met the requirements of my diversion program and cleaned up my act

now if you know that hammers coming down on me and he'll be able to pull out another program of justice diversion that i didnt know about that will save my ass, then that a different story

but no ones let me know if i should be expecting some bad things right now yet. i feel like ive done good things and the overall appearance of my case has dramatically improved in my favor so until i know im gonna have to be fighting to stay afloat here, i cant enlist the help of a man whos told me "your well being is my main priority right now" and then upon the simple request of information so that i could do some minor research into this area of the law he told me money needed to be in his hand before he said another word to me

i just feel like this guy is gonna respond to the judge for me for a couple thousand bucks and 15 minutes on the stand while the judge reads me the same stuff he would otherwise

please take no offense to this as its not an attempt at arguing or something. its just me expressing my doubts because until im convinced of something, im naturally aggressively skeptical. thanks for your reply. i appreciate it and hope that you reply again with and answer if you have one

in california your case would prolly be dismissed but then again yuor soewhere else

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well that would be sweet but im getting the overwhelming vibe from everyone in our system that that'll happen when me shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbert

Public defender?

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ok guys well i went to court yesterday without a lawyer and just got it over with. i pleaded my case, but basically what happened was they revoked my diversion and charged me with a misdemeanor drug possession and suspended my license for 6 months and totally revoked it for the first 30 days. the only good news is they didnt extend my probation. im totally off probation now

i fucking hate the people who run our justice system, but im sure most of you can agree with that anyway. i just cant understand why my license had anything to do with it since it didnt involve a car at all. plus the fact that i need it to drive to work and i work 3rd shift so ive been walking home from work super late at night. god theyre assholes

Lesson here: Get a lawyer

That's usually what happens with probation. They actually own you for the entire time, and can subject you to all kinds of outlandish bullshit. As i have said before, i would rather serve time as opposed to those cocksuckers owning me for months and months...

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Many people told you to get a lawyer. No offense but you have no one here to blame but yourself. And you didn't get your probation extended because you got charged; where as with probation you probably would've had it dropped after your probation had been successfully served.

I do not feel sorry for you.

For the money and time it was worth.. a lawyer would've been in your benefit. No one has ever said "man.. I really wish I didn't get that lawyer. Sure he got me off that charge, but man.. what use was that?".

Lesson here; get a lawyer. You don't know enough about the law to represent yourself as is the case with many defendants. Whenever I'm in doubt, I consult my lawyer.

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With probation you can usually get deferred adjudication (I'm not a lawyer so no one take this as legal advice) at which point once your probation is served it will be dropped off your record. If you do not get deferred then you can usually get your records sealed after your probation has been completed. Something that you cannot do without probation (at least that's how I recall it).

So yes they own you for months at a time; but at the end of it you have a relatively clean record in the eyes of future employers (unless those employers are part of a government agency in which case sealing your records does not help you at all).

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DISCLAIMER: I do not know how to grow/cultivate cannabis. All posts made by me are fictitious in the form of role playing a cannabis cultivator.

The act of role playing is acting out a story/game. In this case I am participating in a Role playing game, or an RPG, of Cannabis growers.

None of this is Real and I reitterate I have no expierence with growing or using cannabis.

Check out my New and Improved Grow Log!!!

Check out my Mothering Log!!!

Expungement can proceed after sentencing, although it is most successful after time. That way, you can prove that you are deserving of a clean slate. Except in certain states such as California where expungement does not actually clean the slate, it also requires probation.

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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety will not deserve liberty nor safety and will obtain neither.

Benjamin Franklin

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.

Benjamin Franklin

For future reference, if your PO is revoking your probation due to violations of your terms and conditions such as two no-shows, failure to pay fines, and failure to get into your court ordered substance abuse program; he/she probably isn't going to write the court a very complimentary probation violation report because the reality is that you're failing to complete what are some fairly basic requirements of your probation. And even if he was going to ask the court to go easy on you, the judge might not be so lenient. ALWAYS GET A LAWYER.

Remember, while on probation your probation officer does not need to prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on a probation violation. In most jurisdictions, the probation officer need only prove a preponderance of evidence. It sounds like you had brought yourself primiarily into compliance and you still got hammered. Again, ALWAYS GET A LAWYER.

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