Johnson County Criminal Defense Lawyer explains: What is a Diversion Agreement?

www.rothdavies.com 913-451-9500 To get this out of the way right at the start this video is not an end all be all about diversions. This is not going to serve where a person should not talk with a lawyer or anything like that. This is just going to talk very briefly about some very common things that come up in a diversion agreement and why it may not be for you depending on your specific set of facts. I am going to go over a couple of common things that are in diversions. The first thing is going to be to establish what jurisdiction you’re in and it is going to establish what crime you have been charged with. Then it is going to go into a various different waiver of rights. The reason that these waivers are in place is because a diversion is a contract. Just like any contract you’re going to give up certain things and the other side is going to give up certain things. The reason they do that sometimes is for practical reasons but other times it is so that it makes it very easy to convict a person if they violate the terms of the agreement. I will go over a couple of common ones. The first one would probably be something to do with waiver of a right to counsel. In other words, if you’re doing this on your own and you don’t have the advice and assistance of a lawyer it is going to make sure that you know that you have a right to a lawyer and it’s going to make you waive that right. The reason the court is going to do that is so that you can’t come back later and say that you didn’t know you could have a lawyer on the case. One of the other things is a waiver of a right to a speedy trial. The diversion is usually a year long for most crimes and one of the conflicts in that is you have a right to have a speedy trial within 180 days of arraignment in Kansas. If you think about that practically if you’re going to voluntarily continue a case out for a year you can’t practically preserve someone’s right to a speedy trial. Another thing the diversion agreement is going to go over is a person right to have a jury trial. In some municipal cases you might not have a jury trial. In some cases, you may not have the right to a jury trial, depending on the violation. If it’s a class A misdemeanor or you are entitled to a jury trial then the court is going to notify you that you have that right. In diversion agreements it is also going to make you waive your right to confront witnesses, testify on your own behalf, and present evidence on your own behalf. Practically if you do a diversion you are essentially giving up your trial rights. That’s part of the exchange for bargain when you sign a diversion agreement. You’re giving up some rights and they are giving up some rights. But when you waive these rights you can no longer have a trial. You can no longer present evidence at that trial like testimony on your own behalf or testimony of other witnesses or experts. You can no longer confront witnesses so you can’t question the cops or any other law enforcement officer that is making some sort of allegation against you. All of those rights are waived when you sign the diversion agreement. So, to this point we have been talking about things you have been giving up. Now there’s another pretty common thing that is in a diversion agreement. It is going to inform you of your right to have a trial upon a violation. What that means is whenever you sign a diversion agreement you are saying on the facts of this case, I’m never going to have a trial. I’m going to stipulate or agree that I violated the law, but I want you to give me an exchange for my stipulations and agreements. I’m going to get a period of time in which I’m allowed to complete certain tasks or keep up my side of the diversion agreement. Whether that be alcohol and drug classes or things that like that or whether it just be refrain from any new law violations. So, you are waiving all of your rights to actually contest the charges on this case. If you have some sort of problem while on diversion, say the city believes that you have violated the terms of that agreement, then you can have a trial upon the violation. No diversion agreement can make you waive your right to have a trial on the violation. But you have to remember there is difference standard of proof whenever a city is trying to prove you violated a diversion agreement. One of the last things that is going to be in virtually every diversion agreement is, like I referenced before, a stipulation to the facts. Essentially an agreement that you have violated the law. You’re going to stipulate to the police reports, videos, statements that those can all come in against you if there ever is a trial on stipulated facts. This makes it very difficult for you to defend a case if you are found in violation and you have to present a case based on stipulated facts with no trial rights preserved. As you can probably tell, a diversion agreement is a complicated legal document with all kinds of in and outs.