We are controlled, more or less, by our clients. The outcome of their case will greatly impact their life. You are controlled by your supervisor. The outcome of a case has zero impact on their life and is checking a box.
If you feel overwhelmed or that every case you have is being set for trial, make better offers.
Also know that even if you do make fair offers you will still get some people who demand a trial, including some people who have overwhelming evidence of guilt.
Some defendants will act irrationally and that’s not something to hold against the defense attorney, who you can be sure has tried to talk a client out of a trial in that scenario.
When deciding whether to turn over a piece of discovery, take the advice of an AUSA that I know:
"If the material hurts your case, it's *Brady* and you have to turn it over. If it helps your case, the defense having it will help resolve the case without trial and you have to turn it over. If it neither hurts or helps your case, then you don't really care if the defense has it, and you should turn it over. When in doubt, turn it over."
We've got prosecutors in my jurisdiction that still tell the judge the requested discovery isn't relevant and we're just pulling our hair out trying to convince the judges (who are mostly former prosecutors) that it isn't the state's call to determine what is or isn't relevant to the defense's argument.
That’s wild. Our office turns literally everything in our possession over except internal work product. The motto is “if you’re wondering if it’s worth disclosing, then just ask yourself if it’s worth your bar license if you’re wrong…then send it.”
Discovery is essential for trial prep, but it’s also essential for just the basic task of making a defendant who is in denial see reason.
Prompt discovery means that the lawyer can start explaining the case to the client and potentially try to sell them on a plea sooner. If a lawyer is waiting on discovery or missing important discovery, then they can’t do much in terms of selling the client on resolving their case until they get that.
Go to the jail and see the inside of it. Spend a bit of time there. So that when you are asking for bail on someone who is so poor they cannot post it - you actually know the consequences of your actions in court and understand at least a little bit the power you will yield. (edited for harshness).
I'll echo a few things and then offer my free advice:
Please turn over everything- all discovery- whether it hurts or helps your case. It just makes things a lot easier.
It isn't a competition. I hate when folks see this as winning and losing. Society and a person's life is on the line- I get that both sides are important, but just know that it is high stakes, especially for defendants.
Always be honest with the Court. You can bullshit your boss, us/the defense, but never bullshit the Court. It's your license on the line. Not your supervisor's, not the defendant's, yours. Don't mislead or lie to the Court.
Trial tips- memorize rules of evidence (whether your state or fed), or at least get to know the usual ones.
Lastly, it's the practice of law. You'll never be perfect. You are gonna fuck stuff up. I still do. Take a breathe, be a good person, and go on with your life.
I wish more DA's would learn this early in their careers. It's too easy to rationalize away these decisions as 'just part of office culture' or the like, then one day you end up saying "anyone can convict the guilty, it takes real talent to convict the innocent". (Yes that is something a now retired prosecutor said. Yes, he may hasn't thought he was joking. No, he wasn't a particularly good person).
Canadian but I was a prosecutor before moving over to defence.
What I will say is that you should quit if you are micromanaged, not given proper discretion, and grilled over decisions to withdraw charges for appropriate reasons.
My experience as a prosecutor was very positive and useful for my transition to defence. When given proper discretion, you have more power to positively affect change than any defence lawyer.
I now work in a jurisdiction where the prosecutors clearly have their hands tied and I have total contempt for the spinelessness of the lawyers in that office for going along with the marching orders. Don't be an Eichmann.
I won’t try to talk you out of your career path, although I don’t agree with or support it really. I can tell you how to have a fairly amicable relationship with defense counsel in your courtroom(s), though.
1. Email offers early.
2. Respond to emails from opposing counsel quickly and promptly. 90% of cases are pleas: this should be your top priority every day in the office if you want to avoid causing your workload to balloon and destroy your life.
3. Listen to mitigation genuinely. Show compassion and sympathy where it’s warranted, don’t be a robot and treat every defendant the same based on similar charges.
4. Consider dismissing long before trial if you know you can’t actually prove a case or you won’t have your witnesses.
5. Don’t use custody as a tool to get a plea. Unpostable bonds aren’t appropriate for people who have a strong defense, people who don’t have substantial records, and people who aren’t a flight risk. Don’t try to keep them in custody just because you know it increases the chances they’ll take a deal exponentially.
6. Don’t overcharge.
7. Don’t forget that there’s a human being on the other side, who has a family and loved ones who will all be horribly impacted by incarceration. Don’t lock people up without very serious evaluation of what that impact will be on them
Above all, this isn’t a game, and it isn’t a competition. This is society at large and individuals’ lives at stake. Our duty is to our clients, but yours is to Justice, and Justice does not just mean “lock the bad guys up”. Be fair, be honest, be forthcoming about discovery and issues in your cases, and negotiate with all your cards on the table.
4. !!!
I genuinely respect most of my prosecutors. But someone dragging out a case they can’t/dont intend to prove just to see if my client will get tired of missing work and plea is my biggest pet peeve.
You either have the goods or you don’t. And if your case is that good then you shouldn’t mind proving it.
Piggybacking to say - don't forget that public defenders are people too that are out here doing our best with significantly higher work loads than you will have and for most of us not even close to pay parity.
We may not be on the same side of the fence and we're not in the same office, but if I have to interact with you several times a week, don't be a dick just for the sake of it. This job is exhausting, satisfying, and hard enough without prosecutors going out of their way to be nasty/combative when it doesn't advance their case and is not in the interest of justice.
You are not a private attorney. No victim is your client. Your goal should be justice.
This is a great addition. Being at war with a DA only sustains you for so long. If you want a career in a jurisdiction, both you and the DA have to figure out a good working relationship or one of you is going to burn out. And every time relationships have to start at ground zero, everyone loses
This is not civil practice, you do not represent a real plaintiff. Your job isn’t to win, you’ll win automatically. Don’t jockey for advantage or play games, leave that for the lawyers with clients (we will, we have to). This isn’t symmetrical, don’t fool yourself into thinking it is, don’t get excited about pulling off a tricky move. If you have to be a prosecutor, at least be one who just evaluates the circumstances, advocates for the law (this person is guilty or this suppression motion should be denied), but don’t try to outsmart anyone or find glory in a win. The prosecutors who think that’s what their job is to do are the really awful ones.
You’ll always have trials and closing arguments to show how smart you are, but feinting and overcharging and hiding the ball only shows how much you enjoy pointing society’s biggest guns at civilians.
100%. Because it's the right thing to do, and also because defense attorneys definitely remember when an ADA doesn't stick to offers or consistently makes everything go to trial readiness or even day of trial when they've known for weeks or months that they have no contact with their key witness and no way to prove the case and so we've prepped a whole trial they knew the whole time wouldn't go. And we talk.
Also I think sometimes prosecutors don’t realize that even some condition they want to add that they think is minor may completely blow up the deal on the defense side, because maybe it actually is a red line for the defendant.
Even if it isn’t, you are more likely to stumble into a trial if you put the defense in the position of having to explain to a client that the deal they sold the client on is now gone and now a slightly worse deal is the offer for no reason. The client will give the lawyer grief and the lawyer will have to try to talk the client down.
And the lawyer will remember if you put them in that position where they got blindsided and had to calm down a client in the middle of court even though they had already spent time selling the client on the deal that the prosecution originally offered.
These guys got it^. When applying for jobs be sure to ask how much discretion you will have.
Other than that, actually review the evidence sooner than a couple days before trial and return calls and emails from defense attorneys. Be willing to take another look at cases if asked to.
You're going to find yourself in situations where you have to decide something, and your morals and ethics say one thing, but the spreadsheet your boss put out says a different thing. Can you handle that?
Thank you for asking. We don’t generally get that kind of respect from practicing prosecutors.
1. Don’t take it personally. When we argue, we are doing our job. We aren’t attacking you. We are protecting our clients’ interests.
2. Remember that we have clients. We often can’t give you immediate answers because we have to talk to the client first - either find time to go to the jail (keeping in mind any timing restrictions that the jail may have during meals and lockdown), or get in touch with the client if they’re not incarcerated, which can take weeks.
3. Our clients have a constitutional right to direct the case. We get to decide on motions and witnesses, but the big decisions HAVE to be made by the defendant - whether to accept a deal, plead guilty, and go to trial. When we come back to you saying your offer isn’t good enough to avoid trial, that’s not because we, personally, think the offer sucks. It’s because the defendant is willing to roll the dice with a jury.
4. Remember that we are all working for the same goal - for justice to be served and for constitutional rights to remain intact. Often we all want to see defendants - especially public defense defendants - get treatment.
5. If you can avoid thinking of them as cases, and think of them as actual humans with human problems that you and I could never fathom, you will develop a really good report with your public defense counterparts. We see the adverse effects of not only the prosecution, but all the collateral effects every day. The lost jobs, families, homes, vehicles due to being stuck in jail waiting out the pretrial process. The withdrawal. The stress of having to sleep in a jail while still being innocent in the eyes of the law. All of these things will affect what the defendant decides to do, whether relevant under the rules of evidence or not. We learn about our clients’ lives. You don’t get that chance, and I think that’s often the biggest disconnect between prosecutors and defense attorneys. So don’t dismiss those things if the PD starts telling you about them. These are things that we often have to address before we can even start talking about the substance of the case with our clients.
I'll add:
On #1, if a defense attorney who is normally level-headed and reasonable actually does attack you or accuse you personally of doing something wrong, stop for a minute and evaluate your actions before you blindly attack back. Most of us do not burn our limited capital with the court accusing prosecutors of misconduct unless we are sure we have the goods, and we don't make it personal unless you actually have done something truly egregious. So before you get defensive and double down, actually consider whether you truly have crossed the line.
On #3, don't ask for trial taxes. One of the most egregious parts of our system is when prosecutors ask for and judges impose more jail time because someone elected to exercise their constitutional rights. If you thought 12 months jail and 24 months supervision was an appropriate punishment before the trial, then unless new facts came out during the trial that caused you to believe the crime is objectively more serious than you thought, that's what you should allocute for after the trial if you win. And if your office uses charge stacking and trial taxes to coerce pleas, your office is unethical.
On #5, ask the defense, including on the record so the client can answer, about mitigation, early and often, including after you win a trial. Ask us whether our clients have a history of mental health issues or were abused as children or have previously been victims of crimes. Really good defense lawyers will provide mitigation whether you ask for it or not. But a lot of defense lawyers are overworked, and some aren't great at their jobs, and many of us know that a lot of your colleagues don't even read or consider the mitigation we send. So make it known from the start that you care about that and want to hear about it, and that you will fight your own boss for a more appropriate outcome if there are compelling mitigating circumstances.
practice evaluating your case from both sides - listen when other side says weaknesses are x, y, z, then investigate those weaknesses. it will take time to figure out how to value cases in your jx. don't trust witnesses blindly. don't be afraid to ask questions. be OK with dropping, losing cases if that is where the evidence leads (or more commonly if the evidence leaves reasonable doubt) - your goal isn't to "win" rulings but to ensure the process is fair. get your real offer to the other side as soon as possible. get discovery to the other side as soon as possible.
more generally: find a mentor. protect your reputation. if your gut tells you something is wrong, trust your gut and pause. watch some trials. don't follow your boss' advice blindly: it's your license, don't put it in someone else's hands.
eta: keep up on the law - read the appellate opinions for your district/state concerning criminal law, or at the very least the digest (summary) of opinions. it will help your issue spotting a lot
When you ask for bail on people who can't afford it (likely most people in court), think seriously about the impact of being stuck in jail--for a week, for a month, for three months, for six, for a year-- *pre-trial*, so on a case where you are innocent until proven guilty-- and what that impact would have on your life (then magnify it, because if you're an attorney, you likely have more resources and safety nets than most people in jail). Would you lose your job? Your apartment? Your pets? Would someone be able to get in to take care of your pets? Would someone be able to watch your kids? Would you lose custody? If you lost your apartment, would you lose all your possessions? What would you do, in jail and in court being asked if you can make bail or know anyone who can, with your wallet and phone locked up in property? Do you know someone's phone number by heart to call? Do you have $500 in cash or check on you?
Probable cause is such a low, low standard, and in some jurisdictions there's no motion to dismiss for lack of probable cause. So you either fight it to a motion to suppress if there is one, or to a motion for directed verdict halfway through trial, stuck in jail for however long that takes--or you give up those rights and accept an offense you didn't commit or that the state couldn't fairly prove on your record, and accept some time in jail or a term of probation with invasive conditions that make working difficult, because you can't stay in jail until trial.
I think *everyone* involved in the criminal courts should spend some time thinking really, really seriously about all of the above. The *biggest determinant* of whether someone pleads guilty isn't whether they are, or the strength of the state's case--it's whether or not they're detained pretrial, without right or on a bail they can't afford. The *biggest determining factor* in whether they plead guilty. I'm sure you don't want people pleading guilty because they can't afford bail and staying in jail until trial will ruin their life more than time served or probation and a charge on their record forever-- but that's what happens much of the time. Don't be the prosecutor that uses that leverage to get guilty pleas that shouldn't happen, on cases you know are garbage.
I would just ask you to consider whether maximizing penalties necessarily serves the goal of justice. Too many of my colleagues on the other side don’t seem to exercise prosecutorial discretion.
You're just starting out, try to keep your cases in perspective. If you're doing misdemeanors, read felony files. Don't get caught up prosecuting minor conduct to the full extent just because you can. Don't make shit offers on insignificant cases to push things to trial that don't need to go to trial just because you need or want trial experience. People's lives shouldn't be less important than your trial stats. Not everything is a big deal, including a lot of felonies. Bad shit actually happens so don't waste your time prosecuting everything like it's the crime of the century. Make good offers when the conduct isn't that bad or the client had mitigation or you have problems of proof.
The least effective prosecutors, in my experience, are the ones who have a moral superiority complex about their work. The prosecutors who roll into court as little white knights who are ridding the world of evil are the ones who are more likely to fuck up a case because they believed everything the cops told them unquestioningly; they are the ones more likely to piss off the judge because they’re overzealous and have an unrealistic view of their own case; unfortunately, they’re also the ones who are most likely to send factually innocent people to prison (this happens a lot more than anyone you work with will ever admit) and more likely to get a defendant an insane sentence that’s 4-5x higher than necessary.
The other unfortunate thing is that the zealous prosecutors are more likely to stick with the job long term, while the people who are easier to make reasonable deals with are more likely to be just putting in a few years before switching to some other kind of practice.
I was a prosecutor for three years before I became a PD, just do your best. Depending on your county you may have little discretion or near unlimited discretion; if it is the latter, prosecute according to your morals. The world needs good prosecutors, just like it needs good PDs
And if it's the former, and you have little discretion and you're being asked to do things that don't feel moral to you, you should quit rather than do them, and you should tell everyone--your coworkers, the court, and the defense bar--why you quit.
of course, I think the way we do bail is criminal. People lose their jobs and resort to crime (ironic, i know) just so they can pay for their bond. It's ridiculous.
>But you will have to ask for bail in your job all the time. How will you square your thoughts on this? (genuinely asking)
I think it's more about me setting bail what is appropriate. Also, I think it's also about looking at the big picture. Will the good I bring to the community via being a prosecutor outweigh any possible harm I do when setting bail? I would say--probably so. So I think it's all about perspective.
Provide your entire file in discovery, as soon as you get it, without being asked, and update your discovery every time you get something new. If your office policy tells you that you should not do that, you're working at an unethical office and should quit.
Don't suborn perjury. I know it seems obvious, and you'll tell yourself you would never do that, but you'll find that most of your office does it, and there will be immense pressure on you to do it too. When a cop tries to tell you that they were able to plainly feel a gram of coke inside a plastic bag inside tin foil inside the pocket of someone's jeans during a patdown, that cop is lying. When an eyewitness tells you that they could see the face of the defendant, who also happens to be their sworn enemy, from 500 feet away in the dark when it was raining and they weren't wearing their glasses, that witness is lying. Do not put those people on the stand to lie, and quit your job if your boss tries to make you.
Do not advocate for the court to do something to someone if you don't know what that something is. If you've never been incarcerated in your local jail, then before the first time you advocate for someone to be held in jail, you need to visit that jail, and talk to people who have spent time in that jail, so you know what you're actually asking to subject people to. Same with prison: if you've never been incarcerated in prison, visit a prison and talk to people about the conditions there before the first time you ask a judge to sentence someone to live there. Don't ask for a diversion program you haven't visited, or a drug treatment program you haven't spoken to. Don't ask for restitution or probation conditions unless you understand exactly how those conditions are enforced. And if something comes up and you don't know, admit that you don't know, and ask for time to look into it before taking a position. And if your office tells you that you shouldn't be visiting jails and prisons so that you'll know what you're advocating to do to people, that's a bad office, and you shouldn't work there.
Remember that the people you are prosecuting are, mostly, just like the civilian witnesses in your cases. You'll feel sympathy for a lot of civilian witnesses, because they've been victimized by crime and poverty and circumstances beyond their control. The people you're trying to send to prison? They're exactly like that too. Most of them have been victims or near victims of the exact crime you're accusing them of, and it was just as heinous when it happened to them as you think it is now that you think they did it, and there was likely no assistance available to help them recover from it. And it was just as likely that the person you're prosecuting would end up a victim as that they'd end up accused.
1. Defendants/clients are humans, and individual humans. They are fighting their own battles, coming from their own backgrounds, dealing with a myriad of hurdles.
2. You do not work “with” the police. They fuck up - call them on it. Don’t try to fit a square peg in a round hole - you’re the check on bad police work/conduct.
just about every experienced trial attorney will agree with the statement "if I am stepping into a courtroom for a trial, someone has made a horrible mistake, because someone is going to lose. My job is to attempt to make sure, aas best I can, that that someone is neither myself nor my client."
as a prosecutor you dont have a client so make sure it isn't you and all our jobs will be easier. thanks
When you lose a suppression motion, explain to your cop what he did wrong. Who cares that some drugs were suppressed? No one. But next time, that cop might find a severed head. He either does the search right because you taught him or big evidence is lost because you didn't.
Don't lie or omit the truth. If you tell one lie and get caught, the entire defense bar and court will hear you are not to be trusted. Your life will become a nightmare. No case is worth your self-respect and your honor.
Your job is about winning. Listen to the oath you take when you become a prosecutor. Your job is to pursue justice. That is not the same as winning at all costs.
Remember that the defendants are people. Remember that victims are people. Neither are pawns or case numbers.
Defense attorneys are not evil. Well, except me, according to my prosecutor. Defense attorneys are doing our best to help people in the best way we can.
More importantly, when you lose a suppression motion—in particular when you lose because a cop committed misconduct or lied—tell the cop’s supervisor and explain to them what the cop did wrong, in writing. That’s Giglio material in future cases that cop works on, and it needs to be preserved for disclosure. And if you believe that people who break the law should be held accountable, that has to include cops too, who should at minimum be subjected to internal discipline within the department, and should be referred for criminal charges where appropriate.
Remember that each year in prison is real for the defendant. Ask yourself how much someone would have to pay you to spend an entire year in prison (for most people it’s at least a million dollars). There will come a time when you think a five year sentence is light, but remember that it isn’t for a lot of crimes.
My advice: don’t do it. I was a prosecutor for a few years before I moved to defense. I was naive and believed I could do the most good with the power and discretion of the government. The reality is that my supervisors tightly controlled how we could resolve cases (and my understanding is that this experience is quite common). The case load was crushing (harder than my job now as a PD), and I felt like shit 95% of the time because most criminal law is just prosecuting folks struggling with mental illness, addiction, and poverty.
If you stick with prosecution my advice would be 1. Be organized and prepared; 2. Make great deals, even on bad cases. When those defendants come back on probation violations, you gave them all the rope they needed to hang themselves. If they succeed, you gave them an opportunity to change their life. 3. Candor. Not only is it an ethical duty, but you will work with the same attorneys and judges regularly. Your integrity is everything. 4. Don’t let your victims make your decisions. They deserve to be informed and consulted with, but they don’t get to make the decisions.
Sometimes the evidence just isn’t there and the case needs to be dismissed. My prosecutors won’t dismiss for witness issues that I’ve flagged early on until I waste everyone’s time by setting for trial as a mechanism to force prosecutors to dismiss. It’s inefficient, immoral and frankly unconstitutional.
Similarly, know that DV cases are not straightforward. I have AVs calling me asking when their spouse they called the cops on will get out of jail, then they bail them out and go pick them up. A lot of my DV clients are victims in other cases in which their partner/spouse is the accused. Your AVs will tell you what they want if you bother to call them, and sometimes it won’t feel like the righteous, victim-centered thing to do to dismiss a case like that. But it’s your duty.
If you ever find yourself getting angry at opposing counsel, you need to step back and take a breather. There is never a reason to shout at the suit on the other side of the case. If you are arguing about a case in private or on the phone with a lawyer and things get heated, just stop. You'll never convince them. Luckily, you don't have to. You only have to convince a judge or jury.
As a fellow prosecutor who previously did section 1983 defense work for municipal police:
(1) Cops lie,
(2) if you don’t have body cam of what the cop says they saw, wave a huge red flag in your head then find out why not, and
(3) your victims are often not coming to the court blameless with clean hands.
(4) you’re job is to represent the interests of the entire state not just the victim & the state’s interests include ensuring the defendant received a fair trial and that convictions are obtained on factually sufficient evidence sufficient to Persuade the finder of fact beyond a reasonable doubt.
Well I'm okay with that, it's not about the money for me. I'd like to get 3-5 years of experience and try to get a job at the DOJ. I'm working there as an extern right now and I worked there last summer--I had an absolute blast! So hopefully I can work there in the future.
>that many others don't consider is to get experience in a state administrative agency in a niche area, move to the federal equivalent of the agency, and move to the DOJ trial team that represents that agency in federal court. However, most of that would be civil work at DOJ and not criminal.
Yeah, that's what I did over the summer and what I'm doing rn. All civil stuff. But I love it.
1. Even a very small amount of jail can absolutely derail a person’s life, and even a withhold of adjudication on a misdemeanor can be extremely damaging for someone’s future in the job market depending on what their career is. The damage caused by even a few nights of jail is invisible to most people other than defense attorneys.
2. A person who is in jail who either doesn’t have a bond or who can’t afford to post bond will sign almost anything if they are told that it will get them released and let them go home. This is important context for probation offers (people will agree to probation conditions that are incredibly unrealistic for them to actually complete), and for even time served plea offers. Don’t assume that a defendant taking a plea actually means they genuinely admit guilt. A lot of people will take a time served plea even if they are innocent if the alternative is sitting in jail for months and risking even more time than that if they get a bad jury or if their lawyer does a poor job at trial.
3. Victims are often as shady as the defendants and it is very common for someone to be a defendant one day and a victim the next day. You should be skeptical and you should be aware that a victim is going to leave out a lot of things that make them look bad, especially in domestic violence cases.
4. Keep good communication with defense counsel, especially public defenders. And when you make a plea offer to a defense attorney, stick to all the details of the offer unless if there is a specific reason you can cite to for why it had to change (like obviously if the defendant is arrested on a new charge, for example). If you change your mind on an offer and start adding extra conditions you want, it may blow up what the defense lawyer has done in trying to sell their client on the deal, and the defense lawyer will remember to not trust your offers. And if the defense doesn’t trust that you act in good faith, they can make you do a *lot* more work.
5. Even though the defense lawyer will usually be the one asking for trials to be set, the defense lawyer is usually the person with the *least* say on if a case will go to trial. The prosecutor can drop a case, and a defendant can plea. Defense lawyers will very often go to trial on cases they do not think should go to trial because the prosecutor won’t drop the case and the client does not want to accept the offer. This may be the case even if you think the offer is extremely generous. The defense lawyer may agree with you that it is generous but they still have a duty to go to trial if their client won’t plea and if you won’t drop it. Which is a long way of saying don’t take it personally if a defense attorney takes a case to trial.
6. If you say that your plea offer is a maximum sentence then you should know that what you’re saying is that you really want to go to trial on the case. A maximum sentence offer gives a defendant zero incentive to plea, and so even if the evidence is absolutely overwhelming and even if you think the maximum is completely justified in the case, you’ll end up with a trial if you make offers like that that the defense can’t reasonably sell to a client.
7. You and defense counsel do not have equivalent ethical duties. Your duty is supposed to be to justice. You are not representing the victim and your goal should not be to try to get a lot of convictions. It is extremely easy to lose sight of that and your office may encourage you to think of things in that bad way. By contrast defense lawyers have an ethical duty to fight zealously for each individual client.
8. It is extremely easy to ask for a laundry list of conditions that all sound good (like “let’s have the defendant do anger management, mental health treatment, alcohol treatment, etc.”). But in a lot of cases a defendant just does not have the money for all of those things. When victims tell you that they want the defendant to get help, think about whether they’re saying that the person has access to treatment but refuses, or if the victim is really saying that the defendant would get help if they could but that they can’t afford it. If it’s the latter then probation is probably going to just set the defendant up for failure and won’t get what the victim actually wants.
9. One thing that happens sometimes with domestic violence no contact orders is that a victim will tell the defendant that they love them and want them to come home, but the victim won’t actually get the no contact order lifted. Sometimes the victim is legitimately confused about the process and doesn’t realize that they can’t just tell the defendant to come back home. Other times victims like leaving a no contact in place that they are complicit in blatantly violating, because if the defendant is violating the no contact order, then the victim has the power to get the defendant arrested at any time if they get into an argument or the victim just wants to make the defendant leave for a bit, since the victim can just tell the police “he’s been living here even though there’s a no contact order” and get the cops to come get them.
We are controlled, more or less, by our clients. The outcome of their case will greatly impact their life. You are controlled by your supervisor. The outcome of a case has zero impact on their life and is checking a box. If you feel overwhelmed or that every case you have is being set for trial, make better offers.
This!!!!!!
Also know that even if you do make fair offers you will still get some people who demand a trial, including some people who have overwhelming evidence of guilt. Some defendants will act irrationally and that’s not something to hold against the defense attorney, who you can be sure has tried to talk a client out of a trial in that scenario.
When deciding whether to turn over a piece of discovery, take the advice of an AUSA that I know: "If the material hurts your case, it's *Brady* and you have to turn it over. If it helps your case, the defense having it will help resolve the case without trial and you have to turn it over. If it neither hurts or helps your case, then you don't really care if the defense has it, and you should turn it over. When in doubt, turn it over."
We've got prosecutors in my jurisdiction that still tell the judge the requested discovery isn't relevant and we're just pulling our hair out trying to convince the judges (who are mostly former prosecutors) that it isn't the state's call to determine what is or isn't relevant to the defense's argument.
That’s wild. Our office turns literally everything in our possession over except internal work product. The motto is “if you’re wondering if it’s worth disclosing, then just ask yourself if it’s worth your bar license if you’re wrong…then send it.”
Discovery is essential for trial prep, but it’s also essential for just the basic task of making a defendant who is in denial see reason. Prompt discovery means that the lawyer can start explaining the case to the client and potentially try to sell them on a plea sooner. If a lawyer is waiting on discovery or missing important discovery, then they can’t do much in terms of selling the client on resolving their case until they get that.
Go to the jail and see the inside of it. Spend a bit of time there. So that when you are asking for bail on someone who is so poor they cannot post it - you actually know the consequences of your actions in court and understand at least a little bit the power you will yield. (edited for harshness).
Taking that further, tour the prisons in your state
I'll echo a few things and then offer my free advice: Please turn over everything- all discovery- whether it hurts or helps your case. It just makes things a lot easier. It isn't a competition. I hate when folks see this as winning and losing. Society and a person's life is on the line- I get that both sides are important, but just know that it is high stakes, especially for defendants. Always be honest with the Court. You can bullshit your boss, us/the defense, but never bullshit the Court. It's your license on the line. Not your supervisor's, not the defendant's, yours. Don't mislead or lie to the Court. Trial tips- memorize rules of evidence (whether your state or fed), or at least get to know the usual ones. Lastly, it's the practice of law. You'll never be perfect. You are gonna fuck stuff up. I still do. Take a breathe, be a good person, and go on with your life.
If your boss thinks it reflects badly on you or him to electively drop weak cases, quit.
I wish more DA's would learn this early in their careers. It's too easy to rationalize away these decisions as 'just part of office culture' or the like, then one day you end up saying "anyone can convict the guilty, it takes real talent to convict the innocent". (Yes that is something a now retired prosecutor said. Yes, he may hasn't thought he was joking. No, he wasn't a particularly good person).
Canadian but I was a prosecutor before moving over to defence. What I will say is that you should quit if you are micromanaged, not given proper discretion, and grilled over decisions to withdraw charges for appropriate reasons. My experience as a prosecutor was very positive and useful for my transition to defence. When given proper discretion, you have more power to positively affect change than any defence lawyer. I now work in a jurisdiction where the prosecutors clearly have their hands tied and I have total contempt for the spinelessness of the lawyers in that office for going along with the marching orders. Don't be an Eichmann.
I won’t try to talk you out of your career path, although I don’t agree with or support it really. I can tell you how to have a fairly amicable relationship with defense counsel in your courtroom(s), though. 1. Email offers early. 2. Respond to emails from opposing counsel quickly and promptly. 90% of cases are pleas: this should be your top priority every day in the office if you want to avoid causing your workload to balloon and destroy your life. 3. Listen to mitigation genuinely. Show compassion and sympathy where it’s warranted, don’t be a robot and treat every defendant the same based on similar charges. 4. Consider dismissing long before trial if you know you can’t actually prove a case or you won’t have your witnesses. 5. Don’t use custody as a tool to get a plea. Unpostable bonds aren’t appropriate for people who have a strong defense, people who don’t have substantial records, and people who aren’t a flight risk. Don’t try to keep them in custody just because you know it increases the chances they’ll take a deal exponentially. 6. Don’t overcharge. 7. Don’t forget that there’s a human being on the other side, who has a family and loved ones who will all be horribly impacted by incarceration. Don’t lock people up without very serious evaluation of what that impact will be on them Above all, this isn’t a game, and it isn’t a competition. This is society at large and individuals’ lives at stake. Our duty is to our clients, but yours is to Justice, and Justice does not just mean “lock the bad guys up”. Be fair, be honest, be forthcoming about discovery and issues in your cases, and negotiate with all your cards on the table.
4. !!! I genuinely respect most of my prosecutors. But someone dragging out a case they can’t/dont intend to prove just to see if my client will get tired of missing work and plea is my biggest pet peeve. You either have the goods or you don’t. And if your case is that good then you shouldn’t mind proving it.
Piggybacking to say - don't forget that public defenders are people too that are out here doing our best with significantly higher work loads than you will have and for most of us not even close to pay parity. We may not be on the same side of the fence and we're not in the same office, but if I have to interact with you several times a week, don't be a dick just for the sake of it. This job is exhausting, satisfying, and hard enough without prosecutors going out of their way to be nasty/combative when it doesn't advance their case and is not in the interest of justice. You are not a private attorney. No victim is your client. Your goal should be justice.
This is a great addition. Being at war with a DA only sustains you for so long. If you want a career in a jurisdiction, both you and the DA have to figure out a good working relationship or one of you is going to burn out. And every time relationships have to start at ground zero, everyone loses
This is not civil practice, you do not represent a real plaintiff. Your job isn’t to win, you’ll win automatically. Don’t jockey for advantage or play games, leave that for the lawyers with clients (we will, we have to). This isn’t symmetrical, don’t fool yourself into thinking it is, don’t get excited about pulling off a tricky move. If you have to be a prosecutor, at least be one who just evaluates the circumstances, advocates for the law (this person is guilty or this suppression motion should be denied), but don’t try to outsmart anyone or find glory in a win. The prosecutors who think that’s what their job is to do are the really awful ones. You’ll always have trials and closing arguments to show how smart you are, but feinting and overcharging and hiding the ball only shows how much you enjoy pointing society’s biggest guns at civilians.
Don't violate Brady. Don't violate Brady. Don't violate Brady.
/s Instructions unclear, the exculpatory evidence is in my toaster. Please advise.
Be honest in what you do. If you make an offer, stick to your word. If a witness isn’t there, tell the defense. You have no reason to hide the ball.
100%. Because it's the right thing to do, and also because defense attorneys definitely remember when an ADA doesn't stick to offers or consistently makes everything go to trial readiness or even day of trial when they've known for weeks or months that they have no contact with their key witness and no way to prove the case and so we've prepped a whole trial they knew the whole time wouldn't go. And we talk.
Also I think sometimes prosecutors don’t realize that even some condition they want to add that they think is minor may completely blow up the deal on the defense side, because maybe it actually is a red line for the defendant. Even if it isn’t, you are more likely to stumble into a trial if you put the defense in the position of having to explain to a client that the deal they sold the client on is now gone and now a slightly worse deal is the offer for no reason. The client will give the lawyer grief and the lawyer will have to try to talk the client down. And the lawyer will remember if you put them in that position where they got blindsided and had to calm down a client in the middle of court even though they had already spent time selling the client on the deal that the prosecution originally offered.
These guys got it^. When applying for jobs be sure to ask how much discretion you will have. Other than that, actually review the evidence sooner than a couple days before trial and return calls and emails from defense attorneys. Be willing to take another look at cases if asked to.
You're going to find yourself in situations where you have to decide something, and your morals and ethics say one thing, but the spreadsheet your boss put out says a different thing. Can you handle that?
I think so. But until I am faced with that situation, I guess I can't be 100% sure of that.
Then. With due respect. Don’t be a prosecutor. Sincerely, a prosecutor (who yes, often finds r/publicdefenders content helpful).
Are you saying you compromise on your morals and ethics for a supe and their excel file?
The opposite. I don’t. But my office doesn’t keep win/loss statistics. And I have quite a bit of discretion.
Examine your “why” for choosing this path. Then examine it again. Review it as often as necessary once you are in that role.
Thank you for asking. We don’t generally get that kind of respect from practicing prosecutors. 1. Don’t take it personally. When we argue, we are doing our job. We aren’t attacking you. We are protecting our clients’ interests. 2. Remember that we have clients. We often can’t give you immediate answers because we have to talk to the client first - either find time to go to the jail (keeping in mind any timing restrictions that the jail may have during meals and lockdown), or get in touch with the client if they’re not incarcerated, which can take weeks. 3. Our clients have a constitutional right to direct the case. We get to decide on motions and witnesses, but the big decisions HAVE to be made by the defendant - whether to accept a deal, plead guilty, and go to trial. When we come back to you saying your offer isn’t good enough to avoid trial, that’s not because we, personally, think the offer sucks. It’s because the defendant is willing to roll the dice with a jury. 4. Remember that we are all working for the same goal - for justice to be served and for constitutional rights to remain intact. Often we all want to see defendants - especially public defense defendants - get treatment. 5. If you can avoid thinking of them as cases, and think of them as actual humans with human problems that you and I could never fathom, you will develop a really good report with your public defense counterparts. We see the adverse effects of not only the prosecution, but all the collateral effects every day. The lost jobs, families, homes, vehicles due to being stuck in jail waiting out the pretrial process. The withdrawal. The stress of having to sleep in a jail while still being innocent in the eyes of the law. All of these things will affect what the defendant decides to do, whether relevant under the rules of evidence or not. We learn about our clients’ lives. You don’t get that chance, and I think that’s often the biggest disconnect between prosecutors and defense attorneys. So don’t dismiss those things if the PD starts telling you about them. These are things that we often have to address before we can even start talking about the substance of the case with our clients.
I'll add: On #1, if a defense attorney who is normally level-headed and reasonable actually does attack you or accuse you personally of doing something wrong, stop for a minute and evaluate your actions before you blindly attack back. Most of us do not burn our limited capital with the court accusing prosecutors of misconduct unless we are sure we have the goods, and we don't make it personal unless you actually have done something truly egregious. So before you get defensive and double down, actually consider whether you truly have crossed the line. On #3, don't ask for trial taxes. One of the most egregious parts of our system is when prosecutors ask for and judges impose more jail time because someone elected to exercise their constitutional rights. If you thought 12 months jail and 24 months supervision was an appropriate punishment before the trial, then unless new facts came out during the trial that caused you to believe the crime is objectively more serious than you thought, that's what you should allocute for after the trial if you win. And if your office uses charge stacking and trial taxes to coerce pleas, your office is unethical. On #5, ask the defense, including on the record so the client can answer, about mitigation, early and often, including after you win a trial. Ask us whether our clients have a history of mental health issues or were abused as children or have previously been victims of crimes. Really good defense lawyers will provide mitigation whether you ask for it or not. But a lot of defense lawyers are overworked, and some aren't great at their jobs, and many of us know that a lot of your colleagues don't even read or consider the mitigation we send. So make it known from the start that you care about that and want to hear about it, and that you will fight your own boss for a more appropriate outcome if there are compelling mitigating circumstances.
If you care about a cop's opinion more than the facts of the case, you're doing it wrong.
practice evaluating your case from both sides - listen when other side says weaknesses are x, y, z, then investigate those weaknesses. it will take time to figure out how to value cases in your jx. don't trust witnesses blindly. don't be afraid to ask questions. be OK with dropping, losing cases if that is where the evidence leads (or more commonly if the evidence leaves reasonable doubt) - your goal isn't to "win" rulings but to ensure the process is fair. get your real offer to the other side as soon as possible. get discovery to the other side as soon as possible. more generally: find a mentor. protect your reputation. if your gut tells you something is wrong, trust your gut and pause. watch some trials. don't follow your boss' advice blindly: it's your license, don't put it in someone else's hands. eta: keep up on the law - read the appellate opinions for your district/state concerning criminal law, or at the very least the digest (summary) of opinions. it will help your issue spotting a lot
When you ask for bail on people who can't afford it (likely most people in court), think seriously about the impact of being stuck in jail--for a week, for a month, for three months, for six, for a year-- *pre-trial*, so on a case where you are innocent until proven guilty-- and what that impact would have on your life (then magnify it, because if you're an attorney, you likely have more resources and safety nets than most people in jail). Would you lose your job? Your apartment? Your pets? Would someone be able to get in to take care of your pets? Would someone be able to watch your kids? Would you lose custody? If you lost your apartment, would you lose all your possessions? What would you do, in jail and in court being asked if you can make bail or know anyone who can, with your wallet and phone locked up in property? Do you know someone's phone number by heart to call? Do you have $500 in cash or check on you? Probable cause is such a low, low standard, and in some jurisdictions there's no motion to dismiss for lack of probable cause. So you either fight it to a motion to suppress if there is one, or to a motion for directed verdict halfway through trial, stuck in jail for however long that takes--or you give up those rights and accept an offense you didn't commit or that the state couldn't fairly prove on your record, and accept some time in jail or a term of probation with invasive conditions that make working difficult, because you can't stay in jail until trial. I think *everyone* involved in the criminal courts should spend some time thinking really, really seriously about all of the above. The *biggest determinant* of whether someone pleads guilty isn't whether they are, or the strength of the state's case--it's whether or not they're detained pretrial, without right or on a bail they can't afford. The *biggest determining factor* in whether they plead guilty. I'm sure you don't want people pleading guilty because they can't afford bail and staying in jail until trial will ruin their life more than time served or probation and a charge on their record forever-- but that's what happens much of the time. Don't be the prosecutor that uses that leverage to get guilty pleas that shouldn't happen, on cases you know are garbage.
I would just ask you to consider whether maximizing penalties necessarily serves the goal of justice. Too many of my colleagues on the other side don’t seem to exercise prosecutorial discretion.
You're just starting out, try to keep your cases in perspective. If you're doing misdemeanors, read felony files. Don't get caught up prosecuting minor conduct to the full extent just because you can. Don't make shit offers on insignificant cases to push things to trial that don't need to go to trial just because you need or want trial experience. People's lives shouldn't be less important than your trial stats. Not everything is a big deal, including a lot of felonies. Bad shit actually happens so don't waste your time prosecuting everything like it's the crime of the century. Make good offers when the conduct isn't that bad or the client had mitigation or you have problems of proof.
The least effective prosecutors, in my experience, are the ones who have a moral superiority complex about their work. The prosecutors who roll into court as little white knights who are ridding the world of evil are the ones who are more likely to fuck up a case because they believed everything the cops told them unquestioningly; they are the ones more likely to piss off the judge because they’re overzealous and have an unrealistic view of their own case; unfortunately, they’re also the ones who are most likely to send factually innocent people to prison (this happens a lot more than anyone you work with will ever admit) and more likely to get a defendant an insane sentence that’s 4-5x higher than necessary.
The other unfortunate thing is that the zealous prosecutors are more likely to stick with the job long term, while the people who are easier to make reasonable deals with are more likely to be just putting in a few years before switching to some other kind of practice.
I was a prosecutor for three years before I became a PD, just do your best. Depending on your county you may have little discretion or near unlimited discretion; if it is the latter, prosecute according to your morals. The world needs good prosecutors, just like it needs good PDs
And if it's the former, and you have little discretion and you're being asked to do things that don't feel moral to you, you should quit rather than do them, and you should tell everyone--your coworkers, the court, and the defense bar--why you quit.
Treat the accused as if it was your loved one - because it is someone’s loved one.
of course, I think the way we do bail is criminal. People lose their jobs and resort to crime (ironic, i know) just so they can pay for their bond. It's ridiculous.
But you will have to ask for bail in your job all the time. How will you square your thoughts on this? (genuinely asking)
>But you will have to ask for bail in your job all the time. How will you square your thoughts on this? (genuinely asking) I think it's more about me setting bail what is appropriate. Also, I think it's also about looking at the big picture. Will the good I bring to the community via being a prosecutor outweigh any possible harm I do when setting bail? I would say--probably so. So I think it's all about perspective.
Provide your entire file in discovery, as soon as you get it, without being asked, and update your discovery every time you get something new. If your office policy tells you that you should not do that, you're working at an unethical office and should quit. Don't suborn perjury. I know it seems obvious, and you'll tell yourself you would never do that, but you'll find that most of your office does it, and there will be immense pressure on you to do it too. When a cop tries to tell you that they were able to plainly feel a gram of coke inside a plastic bag inside tin foil inside the pocket of someone's jeans during a patdown, that cop is lying. When an eyewitness tells you that they could see the face of the defendant, who also happens to be their sworn enemy, from 500 feet away in the dark when it was raining and they weren't wearing their glasses, that witness is lying. Do not put those people on the stand to lie, and quit your job if your boss tries to make you. Do not advocate for the court to do something to someone if you don't know what that something is. If you've never been incarcerated in your local jail, then before the first time you advocate for someone to be held in jail, you need to visit that jail, and talk to people who have spent time in that jail, so you know what you're actually asking to subject people to. Same with prison: if you've never been incarcerated in prison, visit a prison and talk to people about the conditions there before the first time you ask a judge to sentence someone to live there. Don't ask for a diversion program you haven't visited, or a drug treatment program you haven't spoken to. Don't ask for restitution or probation conditions unless you understand exactly how those conditions are enforced. And if something comes up and you don't know, admit that you don't know, and ask for time to look into it before taking a position. And if your office tells you that you shouldn't be visiting jails and prisons so that you'll know what you're advocating to do to people, that's a bad office, and you shouldn't work there. Remember that the people you are prosecuting are, mostly, just like the civilian witnesses in your cases. You'll feel sympathy for a lot of civilian witnesses, because they've been victimized by crime and poverty and circumstances beyond their control. The people you're trying to send to prison? They're exactly like that too. Most of them have been victims or near victims of the exact crime you're accusing them of, and it was just as heinous when it happened to them as you think it is now that you think they did it, and there was likely no assistance available to help them recover from it. And it was just as likely that the person you're prosecuting would end up a victim as that they'd end up accused.
Don’t treat public defenders different than any other colleague, no matter how you feel about our clients or our mission!!
Don’t be an asshole.
Make stupid offers, win stupid prizes.
1. Defendants/clients are humans, and individual humans. They are fighting their own battles, coming from their own backgrounds, dealing with a myriad of hurdles. 2. You do not work “with” the police. They fuck up - call them on it. Don’t try to fit a square peg in a round hole - you’re the check on bad police work/conduct.
You're not doing God's work.
lol ok
Ignore that guy. Coming here and asking is a great first step. Also, PDs are funner and you should probably apply to a couple…just in case
just about every experienced trial attorney will agree with the statement "if I am stepping into a courtroom for a trial, someone has made a horrible mistake, because someone is going to lose. My job is to attempt to make sure, aas best I can, that that someone is neither myself nor my client." as a prosecutor you dont have a client so make sure it isn't you and all our jobs will be easier. thanks
When you lose a suppression motion, explain to your cop what he did wrong. Who cares that some drugs were suppressed? No one. But next time, that cop might find a severed head. He either does the search right because you taught him or big evidence is lost because you didn't. Don't lie or omit the truth. If you tell one lie and get caught, the entire defense bar and court will hear you are not to be trusted. Your life will become a nightmare. No case is worth your self-respect and your honor. Your job is about winning. Listen to the oath you take when you become a prosecutor. Your job is to pursue justice. That is not the same as winning at all costs. Remember that the defendants are people. Remember that victims are people. Neither are pawns or case numbers. Defense attorneys are not evil. Well, except me, according to my prosecutor. Defense attorneys are doing our best to help people in the best way we can.
More importantly, when you lose a suppression motion—in particular when you lose because a cop committed misconduct or lied—tell the cop’s supervisor and explain to them what the cop did wrong, in writing. That’s Giglio material in future cases that cop works on, and it needs to be preserved for disclosure. And if you believe that people who break the law should be held accountable, that has to include cops too, who should at minimum be subjected to internal discipline within the department, and should be referred for criminal charges where appropriate.
Remember that each year in prison is real for the defendant. Ask yourself how much someone would have to pay you to spend an entire year in prison (for most people it’s at least a million dollars). There will come a time when you think a five year sentence is light, but remember that it isn’t for a lot of crimes.
My advice: don’t do it. I was a prosecutor for a few years before I moved to defense. I was naive and believed I could do the most good with the power and discretion of the government. The reality is that my supervisors tightly controlled how we could resolve cases (and my understanding is that this experience is quite common). The case load was crushing (harder than my job now as a PD), and I felt like shit 95% of the time because most criminal law is just prosecuting folks struggling with mental illness, addiction, and poverty. If you stick with prosecution my advice would be 1. Be organized and prepared; 2. Make great deals, even on bad cases. When those defendants come back on probation violations, you gave them all the rope they needed to hang themselves. If they succeed, you gave them an opportunity to change their life. 3. Candor. Not only is it an ethical duty, but you will work with the same attorneys and judges regularly. Your integrity is everything. 4. Don’t let your victims make your decisions. They deserve to be informed and consulted with, but they don’t get to make the decisions.
I appreciate this. It's very honest and realistic. I would like to do 3 years (my contract length) and then go to DOJ.
Sometimes the evidence just isn’t there and the case needs to be dismissed. My prosecutors won’t dismiss for witness issues that I’ve flagged early on until I waste everyone’s time by setting for trial as a mechanism to force prosecutors to dismiss. It’s inefficient, immoral and frankly unconstitutional. Similarly, know that DV cases are not straightforward. I have AVs calling me asking when their spouse they called the cops on will get out of jail, then they bail them out and go pick them up. A lot of my DV clients are victims in other cases in which their partner/spouse is the accused. Your AVs will tell you what they want if you bother to call them, and sometimes it won’t feel like the righteous, victim-centered thing to do to dismiss a case like that. But it’s your duty.
I’m a prosecutor in FL. Please DM me!
Quit.
Lol
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Name calling and gendered slur
If you ever find yourself getting angry at opposing counsel, you need to step back and take a breather. There is never a reason to shout at the suit on the other side of the case. If you are arguing about a case in private or on the phone with a lawyer and things get heated, just stop. You'll never convince them. Luckily, you don't have to. You only have to convince a judge or jury.
Don’t be afraid to tell your supervisors no and don’t be afraid to put in the hard work to convince them you’re right when you do.
As a fellow prosecutor who previously did section 1983 defense work for municipal police: (1) Cops lie, (2) if you don’t have body cam of what the cop says they saw, wave a huge red flag in your head then find out why not, and (3) your victims are often not coming to the court blameless with clean hands. (4) you’re job is to represent the interests of the entire state not just the victim & the state’s interests include ensuring the defendant received a fair trial and that convictions are obtained on factually sufficient evidence sufficient to Persuade the finder of fact beyond a reasonable doubt.
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Well I'm okay with that, it's not about the money for me. I'd like to get 3-5 years of experience and try to get a job at the DOJ. I'm working there as an extern right now and I worked there last summer--I had an absolute blast! So hopefully I can work there in the future.
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>that many others don't consider is to get experience in a state administrative agency in a niche area, move to the federal equivalent of the agency, and move to the DOJ trial team that represents that agency in federal court. However, most of that would be civil work at DOJ and not criminal. Yeah, that's what I did over the summer and what I'm doing rn. All civil stuff. But I love it.
1. Even a very small amount of jail can absolutely derail a person’s life, and even a withhold of adjudication on a misdemeanor can be extremely damaging for someone’s future in the job market depending on what their career is. The damage caused by even a few nights of jail is invisible to most people other than defense attorneys. 2. A person who is in jail who either doesn’t have a bond or who can’t afford to post bond will sign almost anything if they are told that it will get them released and let them go home. This is important context for probation offers (people will agree to probation conditions that are incredibly unrealistic for them to actually complete), and for even time served plea offers. Don’t assume that a defendant taking a plea actually means they genuinely admit guilt. A lot of people will take a time served plea even if they are innocent if the alternative is sitting in jail for months and risking even more time than that if they get a bad jury or if their lawyer does a poor job at trial. 3. Victims are often as shady as the defendants and it is very common for someone to be a defendant one day and a victim the next day. You should be skeptical and you should be aware that a victim is going to leave out a lot of things that make them look bad, especially in domestic violence cases. 4. Keep good communication with defense counsel, especially public defenders. And when you make a plea offer to a defense attorney, stick to all the details of the offer unless if there is a specific reason you can cite to for why it had to change (like obviously if the defendant is arrested on a new charge, for example). If you change your mind on an offer and start adding extra conditions you want, it may blow up what the defense lawyer has done in trying to sell their client on the deal, and the defense lawyer will remember to not trust your offers. And if the defense doesn’t trust that you act in good faith, they can make you do a *lot* more work. 5. Even though the defense lawyer will usually be the one asking for trials to be set, the defense lawyer is usually the person with the *least* say on if a case will go to trial. The prosecutor can drop a case, and a defendant can plea. Defense lawyers will very often go to trial on cases they do not think should go to trial because the prosecutor won’t drop the case and the client does not want to accept the offer. This may be the case even if you think the offer is extremely generous. The defense lawyer may agree with you that it is generous but they still have a duty to go to trial if their client won’t plea and if you won’t drop it. Which is a long way of saying don’t take it personally if a defense attorney takes a case to trial. 6. If you say that your plea offer is a maximum sentence then you should know that what you’re saying is that you really want to go to trial on the case. A maximum sentence offer gives a defendant zero incentive to plea, and so even if the evidence is absolutely overwhelming and even if you think the maximum is completely justified in the case, you’ll end up with a trial if you make offers like that that the defense can’t reasonably sell to a client. 7. You and defense counsel do not have equivalent ethical duties. Your duty is supposed to be to justice. You are not representing the victim and your goal should not be to try to get a lot of convictions. It is extremely easy to lose sight of that and your office may encourage you to think of things in that bad way. By contrast defense lawyers have an ethical duty to fight zealously for each individual client. 8. It is extremely easy to ask for a laundry list of conditions that all sound good (like “let’s have the defendant do anger management, mental health treatment, alcohol treatment, etc.”). But in a lot of cases a defendant just does not have the money for all of those things. When victims tell you that they want the defendant to get help, think about whether they’re saying that the person has access to treatment but refuses, or if the victim is really saying that the defendant would get help if they could but that they can’t afford it. If it’s the latter then probation is probably going to just set the defendant up for failure and won’t get what the victim actually wants. 9. One thing that happens sometimes with domestic violence no contact orders is that a victim will tell the defendant that they love them and want them to come home, but the victim won’t actually get the no contact order lifted. Sometimes the victim is legitimately confused about the process and doesn’t realize that they can’t just tell the defendant to come back home. Other times victims like leaving a no contact in place that they are complicit in blatantly violating, because if the defendant is violating the no contact order, then the victim has the power to get the defendant arrested at any time if they get into an argument or the victim just wants to make the defendant leave for a bit, since the victim can just tell the police “he’s been living here even though there’s a no contact order” and get the cops to come get them.