I was charged last year with commercial burglary. I had a felony warrant out in my name. I went to court, and the judge gave me a deal. He gave me 200 hours of CalTrans Community service and 2 years summary probation. According to the conditions of my sentencing I had to complete the 200 hours within 6 months. After I completed the hours they would drop my felony charge to a misdemeanor petty theft and put me on 2 years summary probation. After 1 year summary probation if I have stayed out of trouble they will drop the last year of probation and drop the charges all together. Now here is my predicament. The first 6 months he gave me, I was misinformed by my Public Defender, who told me that the judge wouldn't care very much if I didn't complete my hours, but he would dwell more on the fact that I was keeping out of trouble and working. Big mistake. I went into court on my date to find out that my next public defender said that he thought I might go to jail that day for a period of six months. He talked to the judge and told him what had been told to me by the other city public defender. They added another six months and told me to get it all done. By my next court date because he didn't want to see me go to jail. So here is my current problem. I work pretty much a full time job and the community service caltrans department only works 8 hour days. I have scheduled time to do it but I think that because of the economy they will not be working all of the days that I could possibly go in there. I think I might be missing 25 to 50 hours if Caltrans does this. Will the judge show me mercy and grant an extension if he see's that I have been working on my community service diligently? Is there a way that I can pay off the remaining balance of my community service hours to the courts? Or is there a way to get a lawyer to file a continuance on my case and extend my court date to a further time? Thank you all for any help you might have for me. This is a California state case in Los Angeles.