Hi, I'm Howard Snyder and I'm the owner of the Snyder Law Group here in Phoenix, Arizona for more than 30 years, as a board certified expert in criminal law, I've been helping 1000s of clients fend off criminal charges. And today, I just want to start out with a real quick, this is how you need to deal with probation. So at the end of your case, with the assumption, you're like the majority of folks going through the system, you're going to end up with a conviction of some sort. And in most cases, you're going to have probation of some sort. If it's a misdemeanor. In many cases, that probation is what we call summary probation, there's no probation officer, you just need to comply with the sentencing orders of the court. But for purposes of this video, I just want to talk about felony probation or supervised probation, what that really means. Once your sentence, the judge will normally order you to appear before the Department of Probation. And at that time, they will issue you your directives, your requirements to get through probation. When that happens, number one, it is in writing. So make sure you go through it with your probation officer. If you have any questions, ask your probation officer, or your PO. And if you have any questions beyond that, ask your attorney. When dealing with probation, there are three basic things I want to go through today. Number one is no matter what you think of probation, you're always going to be wrong. If they tell you to do something, and you think you've done it, and they don't have proof of it, you're wrong. Keep that in mind, you have to prove that you're right every single time, the only way you do that is by collecting your information, keeping it organized. So in the event, there is an issue, you've got the information readily available. I recommend you keep a logbook, literally an old paper-pencil logbook, spiral notebook, and it should be documenting every single contact you have with probation. You list the name of the date, who you spoke with what the content of that conversation was, it's got to be there. If it's not on paper pencil, then keep it in your phone on the log logbook function on your note function on your phone. But keep a written record of every communication you have with probation. They're keeping a record on you, you need to keep a record on them. When you go to probation, you may be asking them to, you know, can you do something? Can you go out of town? Can you reschedule a counseling meeting, just something that the directives don't have clearly put in place or that you need to change? And when you make that request, a lot of times now it's by email could even be a text message, Hey, can I reschedule my counseling session? the probation officer may say yes. Where people really get messed up is that they don't confirm that information. When you ask any question of your probation officer, you should be asking you in such a way that you can write down in your logbooks spoke to my probation officer, they said I could do this or they said I could not do this, then you got to follow that up with an email, a text message, snail mail, something in writing that says, hey, thanks for talking to me. Based on our conversation, I understand I'm allowed to do x whatever was you asked? If, and if your understanding is wrong, please let me know right away. If they deny a reasonable request, hey, thanks for talking to me. Based on our conversation, I understand I'm not allowed to do something. I will comply with that order. But please tell me why. Why was it denied? You have to ask the why question. If you ask the why question, they have to give you a response. In giving that response, they're going to tell you how to cure the issue. If you cure the issue, they should now permit you to do whatever it is you wanted to do. Now, it also creates a record on their end. And it gives you the opportunity to go back to the judge and say, hey, they keep denying this request, this request is reasonable. And the judge can at that point step in and change it or at least give you the argument to go before the judge and asked the probation department at that point in court. Why aren't you giving them that relief? I've seen it happen. But it only works when my clients have done a really good job documenting the conversations they've had.
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