Navigating Plea Deals: Strategies for Better Outcomes in Legal Cases (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Miles Schneider and I'm here to talk to you again about a new subject. A lot of people ask me, well, what do I do if, you know, the facts are bad against me, they're not in my favor, what do I do if I don't like the plea offer? So this is a really important question because a lot of times the prosecution will give your lawyer a plea offer and you don't like it, but the attorney may or may not try to convince you to take it because if you don't, you're going to go to jail or prison. But there is a measure you can take in between and it's a process that your attorney needs to go through and not a lot of attorneys go through this same process. And what it is, is number one, you need to be a zealous advocate for your client, which is just academic, you just have to do it. Number two, after you review the plea agreement, you need to develop a set of facts that's going to sway the prosecutor to see things in a more positive light towards your position, whether or not you're acting in self-defense, whether or not you were of a sound mind when you were doing whatever it is they're accusing you of doing, whether or not there's some family concerns, some mitigating concerns like you're taking care of a family member and you're the sole breadwinner, something like that. And then other facts that may undermine the severity of the case. So you do that and you put together what's called a deviation request and you send it to the prosecutor. Now, nine times out of ten, the prosecutor will just flat out deny your deviation request, but you make it anyway because there's that 10% of the time that they'll say, okay, I understand, I see your side, and they'll give you a more favorable deal. And then great, then you have a more favorable deal. Now if that doesn't work and you still don't like the deal, then you have to schedule a settlement conference with an independent judge that's not your trial judge. And that takes a little bit of finagling to do because you have to coordinate dates, you have to do the deviation request before you can ask a judge to do that. And once you've done those things, you set a settlement conference, then you get a settlement conference in front of an independent judge. And in another video, we'll talk more about settlement conferences. And so at that settlement conference, though, is where you try to get the judge to help you convince the prosecutor that we're really close in negotiation, we just need this one little extra thing, Your Honor, and we'll plead guilty. And a lot of times, judges will help you because they have hundreds of cases on their docket and they want to make sure that they resolve this case in the most efficient way possible. So there it is, three steps towards getting a more favorable plea deal. If you have any questions, feel free to call me. Again, my name is Miles Schneider, 602-926-7373. Thank you.