Why Does Your Criminal Lawyer West Palm Beach Want You To Plead Guilty?

By Alfred Bolton


When you first get charged for driving under the influence or some other variation of it, the initial reaction is often to deny all charges. The primary gut instinct is to scream "not guilty" at the accuser. This may not always be the wise reaction, though.

You should not be amazed if your attorney advises you of this, as a matter of fact. Guilty pleas are in fact quite effective for managing tricky DUI charges. No one but a dependable attorney can tell you when your case has no hope of going your way in a courtroom, and he should be able to propose another course of action when pleading guilty is the only way to save you.

Unfortunately, many clients tend to react badly to this proposition. This is only natural. It sounds almost as though your knight in shining armor has thrown the battle without a single blow for your sake.

What you have to keep in mind, though, is that lawyers know their way around the courtroom and, assuming you have managed to hire someone experienced in DUI defense, understand which cases are most likely to see acquittal and which ones are most likely to see a verdict of guilty. They know when the circumstances of a case are weighted so heavily in the prosecution's favor that contesting the charges entirely would likely lead to a worse defeat. 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.

It pays to read up on the stats about DUI cases as well. Ask any criminal lawyer West Palm Beach practitioner. The fact of the matter is that more DUI cases end with the defendant being pronounced guilty than otherwise.

In other words, DUI defendants have a lot to go up against. The attorney is tasked to attempt to improve the chances of the defendant. Sometimes, he might actually tell you to plead guilty, but that is only when he has another trick up his sleeve that might work better than a trial.

For example, your lawyer will most likely try a plea bargain. The plea bargain is also know as the sentence bargain. It is the act of negotiating a more desirable sentence.

If your lawyer tries to plea bargain for you, he shall basically approach the prosecutor and offer him a chance to get a simple and straightforward conviction. The exchange is that he has to alter the punishments to be lighter. Some prosecutors can be enticed to drop heavy charges and keep only the light (non-felony) ones.

It is a wonderfully convenient way of settling a trial. For instance, the prosecution no longer has to go through the trouble of preparing a lengthy or complex body of evidence and argumentation meant to convict the defendant. The defendant's side manages a win of a sort as well in that it removes the worst of the penalties in the plea bargaining and has to deal with only the lighter punishments left.

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. This is an illustration of the alternative means of contesting DUI arrest results. Thus, clients should take care to inquire with their lawyers about the strategic underpinnings of such a move prior to making hasty decisions like switching legal representation just because of this advice.




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