Pros and Cons For Pretrial Diversion in Wisconsin

Question: What are the pros and cons of the Wisconsin pretrial diversion program?

Answer: Often, in order to participate in these programs, you must admit that you’re guilty of the conduct and take full responsibility for your actions. So if there’s a person who believes they are innocent, or even believes that the other party may have some fault in the altercation or the situation, they may not be able to participate in the pretrial diversion program, depending on the criteria to get in. So a lot of times after the issue, sometimes for people, even if the charge is ultimately dismissed, they may be on bond for nine months, or a year, or even longer before the charge is dismissed. And that may be a problem for some people, depending on their specific situation and the terms of their bond and things like that. So there can be some downsides to these programs, in addition to just the amount of time and the amount of hours that someone has to spend either in counseling or in court.