Plea Bargain Video Transcript

Hi, this is Mitch Sexner, founder and managing attorney at Mitchell S. Sexner & Associates LLC. Since 1990, our experienced legal team has been helping clients achieve success with their criminal and traffic cases.

Today I am going to explain how the process of plea bargaining works.

If you have been charged with a crime in Illinois you essentially have only two choices. Simply put you can either fight the case or work out a deal.

If you did nothing wrong and you’d rather fight the case then plead guilty that’s perfectly fine. Your lawyer will help prepare you for a trial and you will later tell your story under oath.

If the state fails to prove you guilty at trial then you win. If, on the other hand, the judge believes that you are guilty then you will be sentenced, but sometimes clients ask us to work out a deal with the prosecutor also known as plea bargaining or copping a plea. This is where your lawyer negotiates the best deal possible with the prosecutor.

A good lawyer will not take the prosecutor’s first offer, but will go back and forth until all efforts have been exhausted.

There are two main benefits to plea bargaining. This first is this: When a case is plea bargained it usually moves quicker in court resulting in lower attorney fees. The second benefit is when you plea bargain you know the terms of the deal are before you plead guilty. That’s because usually the judge will go along with the deal your lawyer has worked out; on the other hand, if you do a trial and end up losing, all bets are off.

You may receive just as good a deal as what your lawyer could have plea bargained for with the prosecutor or it may be worse, it will be up to the judge. The decision of whether to plea bargain or go to trial is always yours but choose wisely. An experienced lawyer will help guide you through this process and help you make the smartest choices.

If you have any questions about plea bargaining or any other matter, feel free to call me any time. This has been Mitch Sexner of Mitchell S. Sexner & Associates LLC.