It hasn’t taken long for some the wrinkles in Dr Demento‘s grand plan to appease the tabloids… err, I mean rebalance the criminal justice system in favour of better headlines… err, I mean victims, to start emerging…

I cannot go one day without having to confirm to a Court, or make a note in my own files, that I have advised a Client that if they plead guilty they will be given credit for their early guilty plea.

Why do the Courts give credit for early guilty pleas? Well, it is to reward a Client for being honest with the Court and to reduce their sentence to take account fo the fact that a timely and costly trial has not taken place.

If Dr. Reid does want to take away the idea of discount for a guilty plea then he is likely to find lawyers advising Clients that they have nothing to lose by pleading not guilty. If the sentence will be the same whether the person is convicted after a trial or pleads guilty then what is the point in pleading guilty? If there is no carrot being dangled to intice a guilty plea defendants are likely to plead not guilty.

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’d expected.