Explaining Supervision in Illinois

You’ve entered a plea of guilty and have been sentenced to court supervision on a traffic offense…now what? First, you must understand that a supervision is a “deferred” conviction. The court may have explained to you that if you comply with all the terms of your supervision, your case will be dismissed. Sounds good, right? Well, this is not quite accurate, and it is frustrating to traffic defense attorneys to explain to our clients that things don’t simply go away from your driving record. All that a supervision means is that if you comply with all the terms of your record, a conviction will not enter against you. The supervision, however, still shows up on your driving record. Certain people, such as attorneys, who request your driving record can see those prior supervisions. For most people, however, supervisions don’t really affect your daily life. For example, supervisions, in general, should not raise your insurance premiums and will have no consequences on your driving privileges.

Now that you understand what a supervision means, it is important for you to maintain that supervision by following through on the terms of your sentence. More than likely, your sentence includes a fine and court costs, which can be extremely high (often times two or three times higher than the fine entered.) It can also include additional requirements such as traffic safety school and public or home community service work, and whatever else the judge wants to impose, within the limits of the Illinois Vehicle Code. Generally, a supervision is for a set period of time, 90 days, 180 days or one year. Implicit (and often explicitly reviewed in court) is the requirement that you receive no new violations during the course of your supervision. If you fail to comply with a term on your supervision sentence, or receive a new offense, the prosecutors can take steps to revoke the original supervision and, after a hearing, request a different, and often harsher, sentence. This may mean a conviction can enter on your driving record which can have adverse consequences on your driving record. Also, while a supervision cannot contain a jail sentence on a misdemeanor traffic violation, a conviction entered because of your failure to comply can include jail.

All counties work differently in their requirements for payments and return court dates. It is important that you understand how the county you received a ticket seeks your compliance. For example, in McHenry County, if you do not pay in full on the date your sentence is entered, the clerks automatically set up a payment plan for you and require that you follow that payment plan, paying monthly until you are paid in full. If you fail to make a payment plan, or fail to follow the payment plan a letter will be sent to your address requesting immediate payment of the entire amount. A failure to pay in full by the date provided in that letter, will result in a follow-up letter requesting your appearance in court. If you fail to appear, after proper procedural requirements, the prosecutor can eventually request a warrant. Our neighbors in Boone County and Lake County operate differently. Boone County often has a six month (or less) date where you must pay in full or appear to request additional time to continue to pay. There is no payment plan, no requirement that you pay monthly. This pay or appear date is essentially independent of the duration of your supervision, and if you fail to appear, a warrant will automatically be issued against you. In Lake County, the requirement is that you pay in full prior to your release date. Generally, there is no interim date, pay or appear date, or payment plan.

If you have additional requirements to perform during your court supervision, make certain that the court has the documentation required to prove your completion. Often times if you have to comply with public service or traffic safety school you will be told that the provider or supervisor will send in proof of compliance to the court. In the end, however, it is your responsibility to make certain that they have what is required on file, especially if your presence is waived on the release date, because it is your driving record that can be affected when proof is not on file. Boone County has a thorough and wonderful public access system. You can check what documents they have received in the history section. McHenry County has a pretty advanced public access system, but it will not tell you if your documents are on file, but you can easily call the court house to find out. Lake County has no public access system, you must call the court house for any information.

Botto, Gilbert, Schottland and Andrle, PC is a general practice law firm specializing in criminal defense, traffic, personal injury, workman’s compensation and family law. We practice in McHenry, Boone, Kane, Cook, and Lake Counties.