For those of you who are unaware, court supervision is essentially a promise that you won’t violate any criminal, ordinance, or traffic laws during the supervising period in exchange for the ticket not being on your public driving record. It is also a promise that you will pay all fines and court costs as well as any other sentencing obligations such as completing traffic school. As such, receiving a new traffic ticket can result in your supervision being revoked. If that happens, you can be convicted of the ticket making it public for insurance companies to see and it can harm your driving privileges.
With that said, there are steps that can be taken to avoid court supervision from being revoked. First, it is always advised that you comply with all other terms of your sentence. If you have paid your fines and done traffic school, prosecutors are more hesitant to revoke your supervision which is contingent on them showing that your violation was the result of a willful intent to not not meet the terms of your sentence.
Depending on the nature of the violating ticket, some prosecutors are less prone to violating your supervision. If it is the same type or a more serious ticket as the one you are on supervision for, it is more likely they may revoke you. In such situations, an attorney’s assistance is more advisable.
If your supervision is set to terminate very soon, another option is to delay resolving your pending case that violated your supervision. In many cases, prosecutors are dependent on driving records to determine whether supervision has been violated. If a case is pending in a county separate from your supervising county, the supervising county is very unlikely to have knowledge of the violating ticket. Only when you are found guilty would such a ticket appear on your driving record.
Lastly, plan to be in court for your new ticket. Many state’s attorney’s offices have standing policies to reject court supervision requests out of court if you have had a ticket in the past 12 months. Therefore, in order to request court supervision, your best option is to plan to appear in court where you can, in most cases, be considered eligible for court supervision so long as you haven’t had it twice in the last 12 months.
DISCLAIMER: This comment is not designed to provide legal advice as each person’s situation is distinct. If you would like to seek legal advice for your specific circumstances, please feel free to contact my office at (630) 445-2293 for a free consultation.
