Probation Violation Proceedings
Upon conviction for a misdemeanor DUI in California, the defendant is placed on three to five years of probation. Apart from in isolated jurisdictions, probation is informal court supervised probation as opposed to formal probation supervised by a probation officer. The standard conditions of probation are that the defendant must obey all orders of the court and obey all laws, only drive with a valid license and insurance and submit to any tests including field sobriety tests and any breath or blood test if requested by a police officer following a traffic stop. It is also a condition of probation that the defendant must not drive with any measurable amount of alcohol in his or her system. This is also a zero tolerance law with the DMV that would lead to a one year license suspension even with a .01% blood or breath alcohol level.
Common causes of a probation violation include the commission of a criminal offense during the probation period, or a failure to perform penalties such as failure to pay a fine or file proof of completion of an alcohol education class.
The court has discretion to impose anything up to the maximum jail term for any probation violation. For a
first time DUI in California, this is six months in county jail. In
Orange County, it is typical for judges to impose sixty to ninety days for a probation violation. However, judges have the discretion to re-insate a defendant on the original terms and conditions of probation without any additional penalty. This would normally happen for a minor probation violation such as missing a fine payment.
If a person is arrested for a serious offense while on probation for a DUI, the court will sometimes terminate probation without any additional penalty if the defendant is serving a lengthy jail or state prison sentence for the new offense.