The majority of criminal justice cases are handled through plea deals instead of jury trials. This benefits the defendant, as well as the court system. One way that this happens is that the defendant can get the matter over with faster, and the court doesn’t have to put the case on the trial docket. That can free up some time in a clogged system.
Plea deals aren’t for everyone. In fact, the only people who should even consider a plea deal are those who admit that they did the crime of which they are being accused. This means that if you absolutely assert your innocence, you shouldn’t entertain one at all.
A person who signs a plea deal will have to waive their right to an appeal. This means that once the deal is finalized in court, you can’t come back later and claim that the deal wasn’t what you thought it was. The only exception to this is if you can prove that there was legal malpractice in the matter, but this isn’t common.
There are three primary means of negotiations for these cases. The most common is the charge bargain, which means you might be able to be charged with a less serious crime. Sentence bargaining is also common because it gives the prosecution a chance to ask for a sentence they are comfortable with, but it also gives the defendant some say on what they will have to deal with. An uncommon type of bargaining is fact bargaining, which does away with the need to prove certain points in the case.
When you are thinking of the terms of the plea deal, you must remember that you will have to plead either guilty or no contest to specific charges. That will go on your record. You should find out how this might impact you in the future.