Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Need to get out of jail time

Contact family members your and possibly father's family. If you are clean and do not test positive for drugs during the pregnancy, you could place the child with a family member to avoid involving child welfare in the child's care.

However, as stated by the other attorneys your best approach is to take responsibility for your case and working with your probation officer and the court.

Re: Need to get out of jail time

Your pregnancy could help here in avoiding jail time. But, it could also result in the child being placed in foster care as soon as it is born and until you are out of jail, if you can thereafter show to the court's satisfaction that you are a fit mother. The court will no doubt have some questions in it's mind about this. If you have a decent rapport with your probation officer, you should try to smooth things over with him/her and see if you can get him/her to back your plea for mercy. You seem to have had a cavalier attitude towards this whole probabtion thing, and you seem to know it. The most important thing for you now is to show your attitude is no longer cavalier. But more importantly, that you are qualified to be a good mother. Take a parenting course and volunteer for anything that would allow you to do something for children. Also, take immediate steps to apply for a public defender. You must be prepared to convince the court that you recognize the tragedy to the child if he/she cannot be raised by it's mother and is separated from her at birth. The judge probably won't be dying to take the child away from you. This may be the means to a second chance, but it would be helpful if you knew who the father was, could show that he is willing to support the child, and is a person of decent standing in his community.

Re: Need to get out of jail time

Thank you for your posting and your inquiry.

I have to echo my colleague's excellent summary, and tell you that responsibility is the key here. The judge will only know that you have a bad history here, and will want to see that you have taken steps to make sure this type of conduct will not continue, especially with your child on the way.

Showing responsibility means taking care of this promptly, and showing the court that you recognize that this is more important than attending weddings or any other social events you may have. It also means showing that you are working, or going to school, and are improving your life and are taking this matter seriously.

Typically, matters that go to warrant, and probation violations, are jail time, period. An attorney that knows what judges look for can help present your case in the best light possible, and you may want to at least meet with one before you go to court to handle this, as well as a bail bondsman to cover all bases here.

I hope that this information helps you, but if you have further questions, want more information, or feel that you need legal representation, please feel free to email me directly at [email protected]. It's my pleasure to assist in any way that I can.