I've been blogging about probation lately, so I thought I'd share advice I give my clients when they are on probation. These next items pertain to standard orders judges usually give when placing someone on probation in Georgia. In my next blog, I'll cover the rest of the orders.

1. "Do not violate the criminal laws of any governmental unit" means

• Do not get a parking ticket, a ticket for not cleaning up after your dog or any new citation for anything.
• Do not hang around with anyone who might get a ticket. You will have the rest of your life to hang around anyone you choose;
  while you're on probation, work and go home.

2. "Avoid injurious and vicious habits, especially alcoholic intoxication and narcotics and other dangerous drugs unless prescribed lawfully" means

• Do not drink or take any drugs, ever, for any reason.
• No party is worth spending months in jail after you've been caught drinking or drugging.

3. "Avoid persons or places of disreputable or harmful character" means

• Do not go to places where alcohol is served.
• If any of your friends are on probation, stay away from them until you are both no longer on probation, or you may become cell mates.
• Your probation officer and his or her work buddies go on home visits to their probationers, and they go out to eat to bars where you are not supposed to be. If they see you where you are not supposed to be, you will have to explain that to the judge.

4. "Report to the probation supervisor as directed and permit said supervisor to visit you at home or elsewhere" means

• Keep your appointment. Do not call before or after to try to explain why you cannot report at the time you have already been told to report.
• Your boss cannot put you in jail for leaving work early or arriving late; he or she might fire you but that's better than sitting in jail. Your probation officer is authorized, and may ask the judge, to put you in jail if you cannot report when you are told to do so.
• You have the rest of your life to decide what to do, where to do it and how to do it. While you're on probation, your probation officer makes those decisions for you.

5. "Work faithfully at suitable employment insofar as may be possible" means

• Find a job and keep it. If you lose your job, find another one right away.
• If you're having trouble finding a job, tell your probation officer and your officer might help you land a new, better job.
• When you are not working or performing community service, the probation officer and judge think you are out buying / selling / taking drugs. Prove them wrong.