Michael Kelly recently received an award (ICLE Contributor Badge) for his contribution to the Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE). Michael contributed by providing insight on representing clients who have violated the terms of their probation. This insight is provided through the ICLE webcast on Probation Violation Cases.

You can see a video preview of this webcast (click to view) and a video transcript below:

-Video Transcript-

Stephen A. Milks: “Again, I would like to go to the probation officer, is there a way we can try to mitigate this somehow? Or discuss, if we can monitor or take a look at what are their levels of the drugs and/or alcohol in their system? If there is any for alcohol, but if there’s drugs in their system still what are some things we can do? can we monitor this? is this a one time event? Is this a common concern for the probation officer? Is there a way we can hold off on a plea or hearing? It comes down to reiterating what Mike had said, trying to get what’s best for the client, trying to help them through the entire process, and I think that’s what’s most important.

Daniel Larin: Michael if you determine that a person is being wrongly accused of a probation violation… let’s say their accused of using drugs and they have not used drugs and they’re absolutely adamant that they have not, what steps do you take at that point to best prepare your case to go in front of a judge?

Michael Kelly: I always like to look at the composite profile of that individual person and what’s been happening with their case since they’ve been under the supervision of the court. I’ll frequently look back to even when the case from an arraignment through sentencing to show compliance. If this was a true anomaly, then you can really point out that there’s no real precedent for this.” (ICLE, February 28, 2019, Probation Violation Cases)