Understanding When to Accept a Plea Offer
When should you accept a plea offer that your attorney is telling you to accept? Hi, my name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa felony attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family and criminal law for almost eight years now, and I want to help you make law easy by talking to you a little bit about when you should listen to your lawyer about accepting a plea.
The Importance of Listening to Your Attorney
I see this happen a lot in my job. I actually just saw this happen a couple of weeks ago, where you get a client in a criminal situation where they just absolutely are convinced that they should not have to take a plea. Either they’re convinced that they can beat the charges, or that the plea is terrible, and why they shouldn’t have to do it? Whatever the reason is, I see people talk themselves out of favorable offers, and it only gets worse for them.
Here’s an example. Not too long ago, I had a case where my client, before we got hired, was charged with a felony offense, and it made it all the way through preliminary hearings. So the whole first half of the legal representation is done before I even get in. Now, apparently, during that first half of legal representation, a plea offer was made for a certain amount of time in prison.
Obviously, no one wants to serve prison time, and no one wants to have to take a plea to serve prison time. But if your attorney is telling you that this is a good offer and you need to take it, listen to them, because your attorney is going to be seeing something that you probably aren’t. And honestly, whatever they’re seeing, they need to try to explain to you, so that way you understand where they’re coming from.
Consequences of Ignoring Plea Advice
In this instance, there was a lot of evidence, an overwhelming amount of evidence, against my client in that case. And the offer that was made before the preliminary hearing was a pretty good offer. My client didn’t want to take it, had the preliminary hearing, lost at the preliminary hearing, it got set for a jury trial, fired his attorney, hired me, we did everything to get ready for jury trial, and at the last possible moment, we finally got another offer from the state.
They withdrew the reasonable offer that they had made before, and now they were asking for almost double the prison time that they were at the preliminary. I had to sit down with my client, and I had to explain that this was probably the best that he was going to get, because otherwise, he was facing consecutive life sentences if he took it to trial and lost. And unfortunately, in that case, the evidence was overwhelming.
Make the Right Choice
He was not going to win it. In certain circumstances, and this is one of them, regardless of who your lawyer is or regardless of how wrong you think it is that you should have to go to prison, when the evidence is overwhelming and the alternative is facing even more time if you go to trial and lose, your attorney is going to try to tell you to save you from yourself that you need to take this plea. And if your lawyer is having that conversation with you, listen.
My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa criminal defense attorney with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy. Thank you.
Schedule Your Initial Strategy Session Today
If you or someone you know is facing criminal charges and you need advice on a plea offer, consider scheduling a low-cost initial strategy session with me. Let’s discuss your options and ensure you are making the best decision for your future. Call today at 918-879-1681 to schedule your session.
