MTV News’ JayRod filed an interesting followup to yesterday’s Chris Brown verdict. Their legal expert opines that maybe Chris should have taken the jail time, and also that his punishment is more severe than what other non-celebrity first time offenders would have gotten.

“It sounds good on the surface — no jail time — but in many respects, it’s a pretty tough deal,” [legal expert Peter T. Haven] told MTV News. “He has to do 180 days of labor service. In California, for instance, we’re used to seeing guys in jumpsuits picking up trash on the freeway or weeding. Labor service is not gonna be easy. You have to get up super early, you have to be there almost before the sun comes up and work until 2 or 3 [p.m.]. Then he has to do 52 weeks of sitting in a class for two hours every week. He almost gave up a year of his life ….But, say if he did jail time as a part of his plea, he probably wouldn’t have served the full term — he probably would have done less.”