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Evolving Standards Of Reasonableness: The Aba Standards And The Right To Counsel In Plea Negotiations, Margaret Colgate Love

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The ABA Criminal Justice Standards have been recognized by the Supreme Court as one of the most important sources for determining lawyer competence in right to counsel cases. Because the constitutional test under the Sixth Amendment is whether defense counsel’s performance was “reasonable” under “prevailing professional norms,” the standard of competence is necessarily an evolving one. The Supreme Court's decision in Padilla v. Kentucky underscores the defense bar’s stake in participating in the ABA standard-setting process to guide the development of defense counsel's obligations in plea negotiations. In addition, to the extent the courts give the ABA Standards credence in …