Probation Issues Likely to Arise as the Courts Expand Operations

As Shea discussed on Monday, the court system will look to expand operations on June 1. Today’s post describes a few of the issues related to probation that are likely to arise in the months ahead. Probation periods generally. The Chief Justice has issued a series of emergency directives related to COVID-19 since mid-March. None of those directives impacted the running of time on a probationary period itself. Probation cases that were set to expire in the weeks since March 16 have expired, unless a judge affirmatively extended them. Hearings after expiration. Those cases have ended, but that does not mean those probationers can’t be held to account for violations that occurred during the probation period. If an officer filed a violation report before the case ended, the court would still have jurisdiction to act on it as provided in G.S. 15A-1344(f). Even if the probation officer (or other office, in the case of unsupervised probationers) has not yet filed a violation report, it is not too late for some cases. Under the language of the Chief Justice’s emergency directives, all pleadings, motions, notices, and other documents and papers in criminal actions that were or are due to be filed on or after March 16, 2020, shall be deemed to be timely filed if they are filed before the close of business on June 1, 2020. So, if a case expired on or before March 15, 2020, and no violation report was filed, it’s over. For cases that expire between March [...]