Pleading guilty: Criminal lawyers for sentencing

Pleading guilty: Criminal lawyers for sentencing

Fifteen steps to get a lenient sentence

Our criminal lawyers are experts at sentencing for criminal and traffic offences, where you plead or are found guilty.

The outcomes we achieve for our clients make a difference in their lives. We understand that a conviction can last forever and jeopardise your future, and that jail means time away from family and friends that you never get back.

At Australian Criminal Law Group, we do everything we can to get you a lenient sentence so that you can move on and live your best life.

Below are fifteen steps our criminal lawyers recommend you follow to get a lenient sentence.

Step one: Understand the consequences of being charged with a crime

Being charged with a criminal or a traffic offence can have serious consequences, and any offence that requires you to attend court should be taken seriously. The consequences of being convicted can be immediate, such as losing your job or licence, or long-term, such as missing out on your dream job later or being unable to travel overseas. For serious crimes, there is no greater punishment than imprisonment because it is time that you never get back, away from loved ones, without your freedom, being told what to do.

Step two: Get the right lawyer

Our criminal lawyers are experts at sentencing for criminal and traffic offences. Sentencing is an art form, and preparation is key. To ensure our clients get the best sentence possible, we ensure you are always informed, prepared, and ready for court. Our experienced criminal lawyers do a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes. This includes negotiating with prosecutors, assisting with references and apology letters, sourcing corroboration documents, directing you into treatment, and obtaining specialist reports. Many clients whose sentences we appeared in have taken the time to write reviews about their experience with us.

Read what our clients have to say about us here.

Step three: Get legal advice immediately

You should obtain legal advice from a criminal lawyer immediately after you become aware of any police investigation against you or after you are charged with a crime. This is because the earlier you start preparing your sentence, the more likely you will receive a lenient one. Your criminal lawyer can advise you whether to make a statement to police, minimise the seriousness of the charge, and get you into programs early that the court will give you significant credit for.

Step four: Know your desired outcome 

A sentence should be crafted around the outcome being sought. Everyone’s desired outcome is different. For some clients, we can deliver a sentence that does not involve a conviction or a sentence that allows them to keep their driver’s licence. Other clients we keep out of prison, and for some clients charged with grave crimes, we get unusually short sentences of imprisonment. Our outcomes for our clients make a difference in their lives. A conviction can last forever and make obtaining or keeping employment harder, and time in jail is time away from family and friends.

Step five: Negotiate 

Our criminal lawyers negotiate with the police and the Office of the Director of Pubic Prosecutions to obtain less serious charges for you and a more favourable facts sheet. This is because the less serious the charge, and the better the facts, the more lenient the penalty will be. There is often room for negotiations in criminal matters, with charges and facts changing dramatically. For example, drug supply to possession or grievous bodily harm to actual bodily harm. Negotiations can result in a charge that would otherwise result in prison becoming a non-conviction.

Step six: Start preparing your sentence early

A court will consider your efforts to rehabilitate between the commencement of the criminal proceedings against you and their finalisation at sentence. Our criminal lawyers will refer you to programs such as the Traffic Offenders Program, MERIT, SMART Recovery, and Positive Lifestyles, which the court places a significant wait on. We can also refer you to psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, or a residential rehabilitation centre to commence treatment immediately and demonstrate to the court that you have been rehabilitated when you are sentenced.

Step seven: References 

Character references for court are an extremely important part of sentencing. They are generally tendered without question, and almost always affect the severity of any applicable penalty, often to a marked degree. References present a golden opportunity for you to show the court your good character in the words of the people who know you best. Our criminal lawyers will assist you in obtaining references and help your referees know what to write. We have made available an online guide about what makes a good character reference, which you can read here.

Step eight: Apology letters

Letters of apology give you a voice in court. They are a chance for you to speak to the Magistrate or Judge and differentiate yourself from the others who come before the court for sentencing. Courts must take remorse and contrition into account when they sentence you, but there needs to be evidence of it. Our criminal lawyers work closely with clients to draft detailed and heartfelt letters to courts that demonstrate our clients’ true character and why they deserve leniency. We have made available an online guide about what makes a good apology letter, which you can read here.

Step nine: Affidavits and giving evidence

For serious crimes, more may be needed than references and letters of apology. In those cases, we take sworn/affirmed affidavits from clients and/or prepare them to give evidence in court. Giving evidence in court is one of the most powerful ways to persuade a Magistrate or Judge to deal with you leniently because it allows the prosecution to challenge what you’ve said under cross-examination. If you withstand their challenge, then the Magistrate or Judge must give the evidence full weight. Higher courts have repeatedly said that evidence not under oath or affirmed should be given less weight because it is untested. Affidavits are evidence equivalent to giving evidence orally in court, but in written form. If you swear or affirm an affidavit, the prosecution is entitled to cross-examine you about its contents in the same way as if you had given that evidence in the witness box.

Step ten: Corroborating documents

Our criminal lawyers obtain corroborating documents to confirm what has been said in other evidence, such as affidavits and apology letters. Corroborating documents are simple but powerful tools to convince the court that the consequences of the sentence are real. For example, if you say you will lose your job if convicted, then we will obtain your employment contract. Similarly, a bank statement can show the financial pressure you were under when you committed a fraud or drug supply offence. Likewise, a Trip Planner public transport timetable combined with car travel times on Google Maps can show how inconvenienced you will be by the loss of your licence. Where a client is in custody and has been of good behaviour, we are able to obtain their case notes, or program completion certificates to prove it.

Step eleven: Medical Records

If you say you have a history of mental illness or physical ailments, then we will obtain your medical records. A court can be exceptionally lenient where a person has a documented history of seeking help for factors contributing to their offending. The form of medical records can vary from detailed letters from treatment providers such as psychologists and psychiatrists, hospital discharge and admission papers, specialists’ letters, General Practitioner medical summaries noting your conditions and medications, or General Practitioner notes describing what was said during consultations. We are able to obtain entire medical files from the community or even from Justice Health if a person is in custody. Where a family member is unwell, we are able to obtain the same documents about them, too.

Step twelve: Psychological and psychiatric reports

Our criminal lawyers have a network of psychologists and psychiatrists we use for sentencing reports. The reports we obtain contain our client’s background, a diagnosis of their mental health conditions, and an opinion on whether that mental health condition contributed to the commission of the crime. We do this because there is a large body of law relating to mental health, including that it reduces moral culpability and the need to denounce the crime or for someone to be made an example of, lessens the need to punish someone, and makes prison more onerous than for someone who does not have a mental health condition.

Step thirteen: Submissions

Our criminal lawyers carefully craft oral and written submissions explaining why your sentence should be lenient. Our submissions are designed to convey to the court what makes your case unique and why you deserve greater leniency than other cases receive. We aim to distinguish you from the pack and want the court to know you and explain why you did what you did. In our experience, it is much harder for a magistrate or judge to sentence someone harshly if they have a true sense of who they are. Our submissions also focus on the law and sentencing principles that a court must consider, and forcefully put that the laws favourable to you should be given more weight than those adverse to your case.

Step fourteen: Know your court

The court process is complex, and no judge or magistrate is the same. We know the courts and their judges and magistrates, including what submissions they will likely accept and reject. This familiarity gives you an advantage in your sentence. It must also be remembered that different offences have different types of court appearances before sentencing. Depending on whether your case will be finalised in the Local, District, or Supreme Court, the time it takes to finish your case will vary greatly. It can be very confusing to someone who has not been in the system before, and having your criminal lawyer explain the court process to you early will minimise your stress.

Step fifteen: Choose the right barrister

In some cases, a barrister will be needed or desired by the client. It is essential to choose the right barrister because they vary significantly in quality. You should select your barrister in close consultation with your solicitor because they are best placed to know who will be best suited for your sentence. There is a broad spectrum of junior and senior counsel, and your criminal lawyer can provide you with a list of barristers to choose from to ensure you have the right person for your case.

Why choose the Australian Criminal Law Group