What Your Criminal Lawyer West Palm Beach Has to Say On Plea Bargaining in DUI's

| Friday, October 26, 2012
By Johnnie Woodward


It is only natural to want to protect yourself from the possible penalties of DWI or similar charges when they are first laid against you. The primary gut instinct is to scream "not guilty" at the accuser. You should know that this is not always smart, however.

Indeed, one shouldn't be too gobsmacked if one's legal defender says so. Indeed, statistics show that many a drinking under the influence case could have been better handled with such a plea. A truly dedicated legal representative shall not make promises he cannot fulfill, and that is why he should assess the case carefully to see if you actually have a chance of winning in a trial.

The problem is that a lot of people do not take this suggestion well. That is to be expected, probably. It sounds almost as though your knight in shining armor has thrown the battle without a single blow for your sake.

Now if this should be the situation for you, calm yourself first and take a moment to reflect on the fact that lawyers generally know what they are talking about. You cannot expect an attorney to make promises or decisions in a vacuum: he has to weigh the evidence and situation and then decide from there if victory is at all possible. If it happens that contesting the charges would likely lead to worse penalties for you, your legal representative should be able to discern that and inform you of it.

Remember too how driving under the influence cases typically go. Inquire with any West Palm Beach DUI lawyer to get confirmation. These tend to go badly for the defendant's side of the courtroom.

You might say that the odds are against you from the outset. The attorney is tasked to attempt to improve the chances of the defendant. If it means advising you to plead guilty to the charges set against you, so be it: he will usually have a plan behind such advice, you know.

For example, your lawyer will most likely try a plea bargain. Another name for it is sentence bargaining. It is exactly what it says: it is the process of trying to bargain over a sentence.

The prosecuting attorney is tempted with the bait of an uncontested conviction for his record. The recompense is that he must alleviate the weight of the sentence. In some cases, he may even be persuaded to drop the charges to much lighter ones.

This spares both parties a lot of trouble, you might say. The prosecuting attorney gets his conviction without having to really work hard for it. As for the defense, it can minimize the fallout of the arrest, given that the charges are already statistically impossible to contest.

This is just one example of how your Criminal Lawyer West Palm Beach practitioner might be hoping to help you by asking you to plead guilty. As you can see, there may be some reason behind this apparent madness. As such, you have to trust your lawyer and allow him to give you an explanation for his advice before flying off the handle too fast.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment