Many times when moving for early termination from probation, you may encounter certain obstacles that could prevent the court from letting you off probation completely.
If you still owe money, have not completed conditions, or have had probation violations in the past, you may be denied early termination.
However, if your probation record is otherwise good, you have made decent efforts toward paying money owed and completing conditions, and you have completed at least half of your probation, you may be able to convert your reporting probation to non-reporting probation, also known as administrative probation. In many instances where judges are not willing to terminate your probation outright, they may be open to the idea of converting the remainder of your probation to non-reporting probation.
Non-reporting probation does not have a reporting requirement nor are there conditions to fulfill. The only condition of non-reporting probation is that you do not get arrested.
It is not complete termination of probation, but this compromise will allow you to live a normal life without having to pay costs of supervision, report, and complete probation conditions.
Eric Matheny is a criminal defense attorney representing clients on probation in Miami-Dade and Broward.