Criminal Lawyers

Your Motion To Revoke Probation (MTRP) Lawyers

A Motion to Revoke Probation (MTRP) is simply a request by the probation department to a court, asking the court to revoke a defendant's probation and either have the defendant serve time, or have the defendant's terms of probation modified. Any party who is on probation, for any type or level of offense, is subject to having such a motion filed against them. Some common reasons for MTRPs are:

    One could argue that an MTRP may place a defendant at greater risk than they were in when they faced their underlying case. This is particularly the case for defendants who have not been sentenced, but were instead placed on Deferred Adjudication Probation. Deferred Adjudication probation is beneficial for a defendant, because as long as a defendant successfully finishes their probation, their case will be dismissed, and the defendant will not have a conviction on their record. Unfortunately, if they fail to satisfy all the terms of their probation, and an MTRP is filed against them, the entire range of punishment that was originally before the court in their underlying case is available to the court. This means in a situation where two defendants, who were originally subject to a possible 20 year sentence, where one is adjudicated guilty and sentenced to 10 years, and the other is placed on Deferred Adjudication, and they both are put on probation, and later revoked, are in two very different positions. The court could actually sentence the defendant who was on Deferred Adjudication probation to 20 years, where the already adjudicated defendant could only be sentenced to his original 10 years.

    As if to add insult to injury here, the Evidentiary Standard is also lower in a MTRP than it is for a defendant's original case. Where a court or jury must find a defendant's guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt", in a MTRP, the court need only find by a "preponderance" of the evidence that a probationer has violated a term of probation.

    As you can see, there is no question that a defendant charged with violating the terms of their probation needs not only a competent attorney, but a zealous and skilled advocate. There is simply no substitute for a lawyer who understands how to detect and emphasize the weaknesses in the states case, and convince a prosecutor and court that these weaknesses justify finding that a defendant should be either continued on probation, or possibly even terminated early.

    Call (210) 714-2427 now for a free, confidential, no obligation consultation about your MTRP matter. Ask us what we can do. Let us tell you why you need us in your court.