Understanding Plea Negotiations: Key Factors and Considerations for Your Case (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: If you've been charged with a crime and you're consulting us and you're contemplating accepting a plea offer, what is it that you should be thinking about and how is it that we go about understanding and negotiating what a reasonable plea offer is going to be? Well, first of all, we're going to understand somewhat of what a reasonable plea offer is going to be when you're charged with a crime based on the information that you provide to us. You know, occasionally when you call and you're consulting us about a charge, you're going to talk to us over the phone for a little while, but normally the best consultation is going to be one that's in person where you're sitting in our office with all the documents that you've been provided by the police so that we can take a look at what the charges are, what the circumstances are, and anything that the police have provided you with. So once you are in our office and we review everything, we're going to have a pretty good idea of how the case can turn out and what a likely resolution is going to be on your case based on our experience, based on what you're charged on. The sorts of things that are going to be taken into consideration in a plea is, number one, the nature of the crime. Is it a felony? Is it a misdemeanor? Number two, what's your prior record? Have you been convicted of crimes in the past? If so, are they felonies? Are they misdemeanors? Are they violent felonies? Is it a DWI situation? Is it a drug and alcohol situation? Those are the sorts of things that are going to be taken into consideration when negotiating a plea. Was there a victim involved other than just the people of the state of New York? Is it a domestic violence situation? Was somebody seriously injured? Is there restitution? Was there some sort of financial loss that the victim suffered as a result of the crime that you're alleged to have committed? Those are all factors that are going to be taken into consideration when negotiating a plea. One of the situations that always comes to mind when I'm talking about plea negotiations is a petty larceny, a shoplifting charge. Let's say you've consulted us and you've been charged with a shoplifting case because you are alleged to have stolen something from a Walmart or a Kohl's. That happens a lot here in the Hudson Valley, so those charges come in pretty regularly and those stores will prosecute shoplifters. So what are we talking about? Well, if you didn't give the police a hard time, you don't have a prior record, and it's a situation where the store has recovered the items that they allege you stole, chances are with possibly attending a shoplifting class, you're going to be granted what is called an adjournment and contemplation of dismissal, assuming of course this is your first arrest, first crime that you've been charged with and there weren't any really serious aggravating circumstances associated with it and the store recovered the property. So that's a fairly routine situation. Other cases where we're going to know regularly what the resolution is going to be are going to be oftentimes in the DWI if it's a first offense and there's no aggravating circumstances. Misdemeanors are ones where they get plead out quite frequently, the cases just aren't contested as frequently as a felony would be contested. In those situations with a felony, knowing exactly what the plea is going to be in the circumstances that you're under is going to be a little more difficult because they're a little more sophisticated charges, they're much more serious crimes and not every case is handled in exactly the same fashion. So they differ in terms of a resolution and it depends a lot on the specific facts of the case. So if you have questions about how your case is going to be resolved, come in, talk to us, we'll be happy to give you a free consultation and we'll have an idea of how the case is going to be resolved.