Most criminal cases in federal court are resolved not by trials, but by plea bargains. In order to negotiate a successful plea agreement, defense counsel must understand what kind of agreements can be made and the effect of each kind on the client s sentencing exposure. Although plea agreements are generally referred to and treated as contracts, they are like contracts in a heavily regulated industry. Rights and responsibilities under these contracts are controlled by layers of statutes, rules, guidelines, Department of Justice (DOJ) policies, and case law. Regardless of the type of plea agreement, counsel must understand the impact of all these layers of regulation in order to know what the provisions of the agreement will mean to the client. The Department of Justice Manual the blue looseleaf standard reference manual for all U.S. Attorney s offices, cited herein as the DOJ Manual requires that plea agreements for all felonies and misdemeanors negotiated down from felonies be in writing and filed with the court. (DOJ Manual 9-27.450) Some U.S. Attorney s offices have standard plea agreement forms, others give individual assistants more leeway in what can or must be in plea agreements. Some agreements cover the basics in a couple of pages, others extend to ten or twenty pages. For some time the trend seemed to be toward longer and more complex agreement forms.

To learn more about this topic please visit http://www.fd.org/docs/select-topics/pleas/making-your-deal-with-the-devil-plea-agreements-under-the-federal-rules-federal-sentencing-guidelines-and-department-of-justice-policies.pdf?sfvrsn=4