Early Termination of Community Supervision

In Texas regular probation, also referred to as community supervision, is considered a conviction and deferred adjudication is not.  Likewise, the rules for early termination of regular probation versus deferred adjudication are different. 

Regular probations may be terminated when a defendant has completed the lesser of 1/3 of the original probationary term or two years of probation. See Tex. Code of Crim. Pro. 42A.701.  However, deferred adjudications can be terminated at any time.  Many judges don’t know this and believe that deferred adjudication follows the same time requirements as probation for early termination.  See Tex. Code of Crim. Pro. 42A.111.

However, even where judges know the law early terminations for probation and deferred adjudication are normally granted using the same timeline. 

—Sam Mehaffey, Partner