Often on first offenses, a court will sentence defendants to a term of supervision or probation for a set length of time. This term may have certain conditions such as random drug testing. Probation or supervision, however, always require that you stay out of trouble with the law. Therefore, even if you are suspected of committing a crime or if you have committed a relatively minor offense such as a retail theft, the court can now re-sentence you on the first offense, which can mean significantly stiffer fines or even a jail term. And that still doesn’t take care of your new arrest.

What can you do? An experienced attorney can help you navigate between your violated case and new cases. Sometimes, an attorney will attempt to delay completing the violation case until the new charges can be resolved. If the attorney can get the new charges dismissed, you might receive a substantially reduced penalty in the prior case or the violation on the prior case might even be dropped. Even if the evidence on the new case is overwhelming, an experienced attorney may be able to help obtain a better deal for you in both cases.