Kansas DUI attorney Jay Norton discusses probation from a jail sentence for a Kansas DUI conviction, what you have to do while on probation, and what happens if you violate probation.
AI Transcript:
0:00 I want to talk to you about probation. If you get convicted of a DUI, that is if you plead guilty to it, or you go to trial and you get found guilty, then you’ve been convicted, the judge is going to give you a jail sentence. 0:17 However, you may not have to serve any or all of that sentence. You can be given probation. So, on a first time DUI, you get a jail sentence of 30 days, 90 days in jail, but before you and you don’t have to serve any time on a first time DUI. 0:39 The judge can give you up to six months, but they’re not likely to. And hopefully you won’t serve, you know, anything. 0:45 It used to be that you had to serve 48 hours on a first time DUI. Even if you never had any prior criminal history at all, you had to do 48 hours in custody on a first time DUI. 0:55 Now you don’t have to. You don’t have to go see the inside of a jail necessarily at all. You can be granted probation. 1:02 On a second time DUI, you’d have to serve 48 hours. 48 hours as a minimum, followed by 72 hours of house arrest, and then they put you on probation. 1:11 If you get a third time misdemeanor or felony DUI, you’re likely to get some time in custody, some time on house arrest. 1:20 But then you’re granted probation from the rest of the sentence. So on a second time DUI, you might get sentenced to a year in jail, but be granted probation from that sentence. 1:29 And as long as you comply with the terms and conditions of the probation order, then you don’t have to serve that jail time. 1:37 If you violate probation, then you can be brought back to court. And if the judge find finds that you violated your probation, they can revoke it and make you go serve the rest. 1:56 If there’s a conviction, you’re going to get a jail sentence, but you’re hopefully going to get probation from that sentence. 2:03 Probation requires that you, number one, don’t violate the law during the term of the probation. Probation is almost always 12 months on these things, particularly on misdemeanors. 2:15 It’s almost always a 12-month probation. It can be a 6-month probation. And it can be longer, you know, on felony cases. 2:22 But typically, you’re talking about a 12-month probation. So you can’t violate the law. That means you can’t have any contact with law enforcement for any offenses other than minor traffic infractions. 2:36 So a speeding ticket, running a stop sign, that’s not going to violate your probation. But driving while suspended, driving in violation of your restrictions, another DUI, obviously, any other kind of, you know, something more serious than a traffic infraction is going to be a violation of 2:54 probation and send you back to court. The other condition of probation is you’re going to have to get a substance abuse evaluation and do what it says to do. 3:04 So you’re going to have to do some form of treatment depending on what the substance abuse evaluation says. It could be a one day class. 3:10 It could be outpatient treatment for 12 to 15 weeks. It could be something in the middle but you’re going to have to do that. 3:18 You’re going to have to pay fines. They will usually have you supervised while you’re on probation, so that means you got to report to somebody while you’re on probation and you may have monthly meetings with that person. 3:32 If your case is in a district court, a county court, like Johnson County District Court or Wyandotte County District Court they have a probation department court services for those district courts and you will be assigned to probation officer and you’ve got to check in with that person once a month 3:50 and you know they they’re going to talk to you and find out if you have the same address and phone number and place of work and whether you’ve been in any trouble and they’re going to run you your record to see if you’ve been in any trouble. 4:01 they’re the ones that decide you know if you’ve complied with paying fines and taking classes and they can assess urine tests and things like that. 4:10 In a city court, a lot of times probation is monitored by the person. It gives you the evaluation, so you have to go get a substance abuse evaluation before you can be sentenced. 4:19 And then whoever it is that gives you the evaluation is who you report to while you’re on probation or diversion. 4:25 In a lot of cases, there are some cities that have their own probation departments. Like the City of Olathe, City of Overland Park, they have their own probation officers, and that’s who you would meet with on a monthly basis and report to, and you’ve got to do what they say to do. 4:41 And there are other cities that contract with an outside agency. To provide sort of in-house probation monitoring and supervision for that, for that particular court, like City of Shawnee, City of Leawood. 4:58 Municipal Courts, they they use a third party that handles all of their probations and that’s who you have to report to and that’s who you have to, you know, do what they say to do. 5:09 Some of these places will put you on what’s called the color code, which is a deal where you have to call a phone number every single day or log onto this website and put in your pin number every single day after 7 p.m. 5:23 And that tells you whether you’ve got to go in and take a urine test the following day and they will give you urine tests, you know, one or two a month at a minimum and sometimes more to make sure that you’re not drinking, make sure that you’re not using any drugs that aren’t prescribed for you, because 5:40 that’s kind of the easiest way to get your probation revoked is commit a new offense or be positive for alcohol or drugs. 5:48 And so if you get put on probation you gotta toe the line or you face going back to court and the potential that you could have to serve some or all of the underlying sentence that they have hanging over your head. 6:04 If you comply with all the terms and conditions of your probation, then you won’t have to serve any any further time or do any further house arrest. 6:12 Sometimes you can have your probation terminated early if you’ve been in compliance, particularly if you have that agreement with the prosecutor. 6:21 But usually it’s it’s it’s a 12 month probation.