Can I Buy Out My Community Service Hours?

This video will be sharing with you a secret, not a 100% legal, way to buy out your community service hours. Also, we’ll discuss the most common way to buy out your community service hours (hint: get an attorney to file a motion for you).

There are many ways to buy out your community service, so let’s run through a few.

First, you should know that you have no right to buy out your community service, you’ve got to do the work if that’s what your sentence requires. But, you can buy out your community service hourse with permission from the judge. This is a simple motion, and the judge will grant it if you have a good reason–and a good reason isn’t that you didn’t realize it would be so hard to find a place to do community service. Yes, its kind of work to go find this work, really.

On rare occasion, your probation officer will allow you to do this without a court order. Admittedly, that’s not a 100% legal, but that’s a story for another day, if probation lets you do that, follow their lead!

Another option, which again may not be 100% legal in your jurisdiction so you’ll want to discuss this with your attorney, but I’ve had clients who have found community service locations that need your donations more than your hours. I’ve seen probation officers get on board with this and, usually, this maneuver is most common with animal shelters where the shelter says “look, if you by me X number of bags of dog food or kitty litter, I’ll mark you down for 150 hours of community service completed.” I’ve had clients load up their truck, drop off the supplies, and get a letter of completion right then and there. Easy peezy. The more you donate, the more hours you complete. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a buy out, but without the judge’s permission.

Again, talk to your attorney about it, but its a great option when available. I’m John Guidry, and if you’re facing a problem with probation in Orange, Seminole, or Osceola County, give me a call, let’s see if we can help you out. Thanks for watching, and take care.