To the person who stumbled across this: I am a semi-regular blogger whose office is in Atlanta, and I discuss federal criminal cases, and the profession of being a lawyer who represents people and/or companies who are charged with crimes. Yesterday I was meeting with a client who will be pleading guilty in the near future. Here are some common aspects of that process. This all happens AFTER me and my client have gone at length through our options (trial versus plea) and after we have done all of our negotiating with the prosecutor.
First, there is the plea agreement. It is absolutely necessary that the attorney and client review this, together, and in detail. Even the most sophisticated clients are often surprised about the verbiage that prosecutors insist on being placed into a plea agreement document. And, even the most experienced lawyer sometimes fails to remember all of the boilerplate that is in a “standard” plea agreement, so it is always worthwhile to go over the document with the client line by line. Continue reading