The Balance of Power in Negotiating a Guilty Plea. Analysis from the Point of View of Defence Attorneys
This article aims to describe and understand the balance of power between criminal defence lawyers and public prosecutors during plea bargaining. Based on the strategic actor theory (Crozier & Friedberg, 1977), which proposes that power and uncertainty regulate the interactions, the article focuses on how several elements related to the criminal case are used by lawyers to shift the balance of power during those negotiations. Based on semi-structured interviews with twelve criminal defence lawyers working at the Montreal courthouse, it appears that four elements (class and type of offence, number of charges, time elapsed since the criminal justice process was started, media coverage) have different effects on the balance of power between lawyers and prosecutors. This article shows how the balance of power can shift depending on different elements related to the case and how these elements are used and perceived differently by lawyers.