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Full-Text Articles in Law
"I Ain't Takin' No Plea": The Challenges In Counseling Young People Facing Serious Time, Abbe Smith
"I Ain't Takin' No Plea": The Challenges In Counseling Young People Facing Serious Time, Abbe Smith
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Criminal defendants daily entrust their liberty to the skill of their lawyers. The consequences of the lawyer’s decisions fall squarely upon the defendant. There is nothing untoward in this circumstance. To the contrary, the lawyer as the defendant’s representative is at the core of our adversary process.
As practicing lawyers know, interviewing and counseling are at the heart of legal representation. This is what lawyers do, even trial lawyers: we talk with and advise clients. As criminal lawyers know, the decision whether to go to trial is “the most important single decision” a client faces, and requires wise counsel. …
Guilty Pleas And Barristers' Incentives: Lessons From England, Peter W. Tague
Guilty Pleas And Barristers' Incentives: Lessons From England, Peter W. Tague
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
When considering the defendant's plea, barristers, like lawyers, have two overriding, selfish interests: maximizing remuneration and avoiding sanction. The tension between defendant and defender is most acute when the defendant is indigent and the defender has been chosen to represent him. It is their relationship that is addressed in this article.
The goal is to align the defender's selfish interests with the defendant's need for thoughtful advice over how to plead, so that, behind the guise of apparently disinterested advice, the advocate is not pursuing his interests at the defendant's expense. By contrast to most American practice, the method of …