Q: Supervision eligibility from 12 months of traffic violation or 12 months from end of last supervision date?

A: Hello Asker,

Technically, you are eligible for court supervision on an offense if, in the 12 months preceding the issue date of the ticket, you have not been assigned court supervision for moving violations. I say "technically" because although that is the letter of the law, it is not practiced anywhere in any courtroom I have ever been in despite attempts to make it the rule.

The exact way the rule is applied varies from prosecutor to prosecutor. What is consistent is this; all prosecutors will agree that you can get court supervision twice in a 12 month period. Most base this date off the date you were assigned court supervision, not when it ended or when the ticket was issued. That is to say that if you are seeking court supervision, they will generally look to see if you, in the past 12 months, ever had a judge place you on court supervision. If you were placed on supervision in the past 12 months TWICE, they will deny you, in most situations. Some prosecutors will even allow a case to be continued until you are "eligible" if an attorney asks. Again, this is all really wild west so it's hard to give you an exact answer.

One other thing I can say for certain. Almost ALL state's attorney's offices have office policies to DENY court supervision requests by mail IF a driver was issued a ticket in the past 12 months. If this is the case and you are otherwise court supervision eligible, you MUST request a court date and seek supervision in court to have a practical chance of getting supervision.

I hope that helps and let us know if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

Jason A. Wilkins

Traffic Attorney

(630) 445-2293