In some criminal cases, your attorney may recommend that you perform community service to improve your chances for a successful outcome in your case. In other cases, you may be ordered by a court to complete community service.
If you’ve been asked or ordered to complete community service, you should be sure that whatever letter you get for your lawyer or the court has the dates on which the community service was performed, and the total number of hours completed. In addition, you should make sure that the letter is written by someone who provides contact information (so that a court can verify that the community service was performed) and is on letterhead (so that it is official).
If you’re in Wake County and need to perform community service, some possibilities include:
- The Food Bank
- The Helping Hand Missions
- Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (Raising Money for Low Income Homes)
- Public Libraries of Wake County
- Cause for Paws (Charity for Animals and Pets)
- SPCA (Animal Shelters)
These – or other – charities and governmental agencies may be willing to allow you to volunteer with them. Before performing any volunteer work, you should first discuss this issue with your lawyer to make sure that your volunteer work will help (and not hurt) your case. In addition, you should make sure that the charity or non-profit is aware that you are performing your volunteer work for a court-recommended purpose so that they are aware they should give you a letter after you’ve completed your volunteer hours.
You should never talk to people at the charity about the facts of your case. If they ask, you can have them talk to your lawyer.
