Deciding on the plea

Deciding on the plea

The law has strictly defined the requirements of a knowing and intelligent plea. Therefore, counsel must carefully review the questions that the court will ask the client at the time the court accepts the plea. These include a recitation of the rights being waived by a plea, and an admission of the facts sufficient to establish an underlying factual basis to the plea of guilty. It is also possible for the client to maintain his or her innocence and to simply claim that he or she is pleading guilty or no-contest because of not wanting to chance the possible outcome of a trial.FN85

A no-contest plea has the added benefit of limiting the extent to which the client must incriminate himself or herself. Unfortunately, it also reduces the likelihood that the probation department will find the defendant amenable to treatment, because admission of guilt is often seen as necessary for rehabilitation. Where this conclusion leads the probation department to recommend a prison sentence, it is undesirable. Usually the sentence will be specified in the plea bargain, and it is usually not a substantial problem.