If I Dont Go To Community Service If It Was My Choice Do I Have To Oay A Fine ?

Tin can I practice community service instead of jail in Nevada criminal cases?

Court-ordered community service is a standard punishment in many Las Vegas Justice Courtroom and Las Vegas Municipal Court criminal cases. Defendants tin can usually serve their hours at any registered non-profit system in Clark Canton.

Providing services to the community is likewise a way for defendants bedevilled of a law-breaking to avoid paying a fine: Every hour of volunteering reduces the fine by $10.

Defendants must exist careful to consummate all the required hours by the due date the guess sets. Otherwise, the gauge may order them to jail.

In this article, our Las Vegas criminal defense attorneys talk over:

Food bank, where some defendants may perform community service hours

Defendants may exist able to volunteer instead of paying fines.

1. What is community service?

It is a mandatory penalisation in sure Nevada criminal cases. These defendants must volunteer for a predetermined number of hours at a verified and registered non-profit service agency (501(c)(3)).

Common examples of volunteer opportunities to the Las Vegas customs include:

gathering trash by the side of the highway
handing out food at soup kitchens or nutrient banks
cleaning animal shelters

Court-ordered volunteering requires physical and manual labor. Simply light duties should be bachelor for defendants with physical limitations. Defendants practise non get paid for their hours.

Note that defendants are not allowed to complete more than eight (8) hours a day. Even if a defendant is ordered to work nine hours, he/she will need to consummate them over no less than ii days. Information technology makes no departure if the defendant is willing to piece of work more than than eight hours a day.^ane

2. When is information technology imposed?

Community service work is a mandatory penalisation for several Nevada crimes, including:

Battery domestic violence (NRS 200.485)
Graffiti or belongings defacement (NRS 206.330)
Damage to holding used for purpose of religion, burial, memorializing the expressionless, education, or transportation (NRS 206.125)
Theft of scrap metal or utility property (NRS 205.267)
Removal, damage, or destruction of certain property to obtain chip metal (NRS 202.582).^two

Volunteering in the customs is a mandatory penalty for many traffic offenses and juvenile crimes too.

As discussed in the side by side section, defendants can frequently opt to do service hours instead of paying a fine.

3. Can I serve instead of pay fines?

Las Vegas judges often allow defendants in criminal cases to consummate volunteer piece of work instead of paying a fine. One hour of service equals $x in fines.³ Therefore, a defendant sentenced to pay a $100 fine can usually do x hours of service instead. Or this aforementioned defendant could practise a combination, such as

paying $fifty and
doing five hours of service.

Community service is an opportunity for defendants in criminal cases who may have trouble paying their fine to consummate their sentence requirement through service. In short, defendants tin pay with hours instead of dollars.

The period of community service must not exceed the following:

200 hours for a misdemeanor
600 hours for a gross misdemeanor
1,000 hours for a felony

4. What is the procedure?

The Las Vegas judge'due south clerk will give a "referral" to defendants later the gauge sentences them to consummate community service (or allows them to volunteer in lieu of fines). These defendants must so take the referral and study to the Clark County Community Service Program window at the Regional Justice Middle, located at 200 Lewis Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89101:

For defendants in criminal cases, the Program window is located on the second flooring (the telephone number is 702-671-3201). For defendants in traffic cases, the Program window is located on the offset floor (the phone number is 702-671-3283).

Defendants are charged a $25 assessment fee when they first sign upward. However, the defendant can ask the approximate to waive this fee. The judge is more than probable to waive it if the defendant is choosing to do service in lieu of paying a fine.

The Programme will supply defendants with timesheets that that must exist signed past an bureau representative to verify their hours worked. It is the defendant's responsibility to contact the agency and set up up dates and times to come in.

When defendants complete their service hours, it too is their responsibility to return the timesheet to the Plan no after than 5 business days before the next court date. The Programme will and then verify with the agency that the timesheet is accurate.^iv Defendants should too give a re-create to their attorney.

5. Can I get an extension?

Nevada defendants are required to complete all their required volunteering hours prior to the appointment that the estimate chooses during the sentencing hearing.

When defendants realize they demand more time to complete the hours, their attorneys should contact the prosecutor as soon as possible. If the prosecutor agrees to an extension, so the judge is more likely to grant an extension at the next courtroom hearing. In some cases, the defence force attorney may even request that the court schedule a special court hearing expressly for the purpose of request for an extension.

The one thing defendants should never do is to await until the court advent when the service hours are due to ask for an extension. The estimate may still grant the extension, but the judge is under no obligation to. As explained in the next section, declining to stop serving customs service by the ordered due date may cause the accused to be remanded to jail.

vi. What if I do not finish?

The Nevada penalty for failing to complete required community service hours depends on what conditions the gauge originally imposed during the sentencing hearing.

Instance: Jaden pleads guilty to a first count of misdemeanor bombardment domestic violence. The judge tells Jaden that he volition reduce the charge to disorderly conduct if Jaden successfully completes 48 hours of volunteering, pays a fine, goes to counseling, and avoids more arrests while the case is open. The judge also orders a six-month "suspended sentence," which means that Jaden will practise no jail fourth dimension every bit long as he completes all the terms past the next court date.

At the side by side court date, Jaden reveals he did everything the gauge asked except the service. Since Jaden failed to complete all the terms, the judge may convict him for battery domestic violence instead of disorderly conduct. The approximate may likewise "un-append" the jail sentence and transport him to jail for vi months.

In the above example, information technology does not matter that Jaden completed nearly all of the requirements. The judge has the discretion to impose the full punishment fifty-fifty if just one sentencing requirement was non met.

vii. Where can I serve?

The Las Vegas Community Service Programme currently recognizes more than 120 public and private registered not-profit 501C-3 service agencies in Clark County. Some of these include:

Adopt a Rescue Pet
Assistance League
Awakenings
Babe's Bounty
Big Hand Rescue
Blind Center of Nevada
Tin can Y'all Identify Me?
The Churchill Foundation
Clothes for Success Southern Nevada
F.Eastward.A.T. of Southern Nevada
Friends of Red Rock Canyon
Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada
Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary
The Key Foundation
Las Vegas Rescue Mission
Ronald McDonald House Charities Greater Las Vegas
Rotary Club of Las Vegas
Condom Nest
The Shade Tree
Sunshine Nevada

Defendants must complete their service hours at an organization that the Programme approves of. If the defendant wishes to complete their hours elsewhere, they should become permission from the Plan beginning to make certain their hours will be counted.

8. What if I live outside of Nevada?

Las Vegas criminal judges ordinarily permit their non-Clark County resident defendants to complete whatever service requirements in whatever city or country they live. Only these defendants — or their attorneys — first demand to ask the judge's permission during open court.

In improver, defendants should contact the Las Vegas Community Service Court Plan to make sure it approves of the organization in their hometown where they want to serve (scroll up to department 4 for the Program'south phone numbers).

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