Plea Bargain

• Not every criminal case has an option of being resolved through a plea bargain, but many do, and the courts encourage it as it eases the burden on the legal system. A few key factors that go in to deciding whether plea bargaining is a viable option:
  1) The severity of the crime
  2) The likelihood that a jury would convict
  3) The amount of evidence available
  4) The severity of the penalty involved
  
  A good criminal lawyer knows the plea bargain process and knows what is a good and fair deal. A plea bargain means pleading guilty to a lesser crime, or a portion of the counts against you, and usually entails some fee, reduced incarceration time or community service.
  
  

Pre-Trial Motions

• If you have passed the plea bargain stage and cannot come to an agreement, your next point of negotiation is the pretrial motions stage. It is at this point that the lawyer will argue to suppress certain evidence, will call out evidence as irrelevant or prejudicial, and will argue to dismiss the case all together.
  
  

Appeal Process

• When one is convicted, it's still not the end of the road. One might be eligible for an appeal. Appeals happen when new evidence or witnesses arise, evidence used against the client is revealed to be faulty, the sentence is proven to be illegal or mercy is called for.