Plea Agreements in DC Federal Mail and Wire Fraud Cases

If you are accused of an offense as serious as federal mail and wire fraud it is important that you understand your legal options in order to minimize the harm of your charges as much as possible. One of these options, that my come into place in certain cases, is plea agreements whereby the defendant will often plead ‘guilty’ or ‘no contest’ in exchange for a lighter sentence or some other specific agreement.

Below a DC federal mail and wire fraud lawyer discusses more about plea agreements and the initial plea that you will likely enter to the court. For more information regarding pleas or for more specific information regarding your case, call and schedule a consultation with an attorney today.

Initial Plea in a DC Mail and Wire Fraud Case

You start out presumed not guilty and so your initial plea is going to be not guilty unless the defendant has already worked out a plea agreement with the government ahead of the case proceedings. Any attorney would advise you that you are never going to plead guilty to what you are accused of before you have had a chance to put forth an effective legal representation.

So a plea of not guilty means that you have not admitted to the conduct they are charging you with. At some point, you may change your plea to guilty. Often, that is because some kind of plea agreement has been worked out with the government and so rather than just pleading guilty to everything that is charged against you, there may be some agreement where you are pleading guilty to one or more charges rather than everything, or to lesser charges or some kind of specific agreement as to what the recommended sentence might be. So until and unless the agreement is worked out the defendant will keep his not guilty plea.

Common Plea Agreements in Federal Mail and Wire Fraud Cases

It is very common for the government to plead down the level of charges that they have initially charged you with. They can drop the more serious charges in exchange for the defendant agreeing to take responsibility and plead guilty. They may drop the number of charges.

Unfortunately, if the government waits to arrest someone in an ongoing fraudulent scheme they may be able to hit that person with dozens or even hundreds of individual counts of criminal charges. Any kind of plea bargain will usually involve significant reduction in the amount of charges or the severity of the charges.