this video I'm gonna take a look of making a plea in mitigation so what is a
plea in mitigation I hear you ask basically if you are pleading guilty to
an offense in the district court for example or indeed any court then you are
obviously going to be sentenced this is a criminal offense obviously so the legs
are theft or drink-driving or careless driving or dangerous driving or honey
road traffic offense or undie done any other criminal offense
so you plead guilty then you're going to throw yourself at the mercy of the court
and get as much your look for as much leniency as you can possibly get
likewise if you do not plead guilty but you fight the case you go all the way to
a hearing and you lose the case and you're convicted well in those
circumstances you're gonna want to make a plea in mitigation then too because
you want to soften as best you can the harshness of whatever penalty is gonna
be imposed so let's take a look as I say if you're convicted of the offense so
you plead guilty or you fight the case and lose then you're gonna need to make
a plea in mitigation of sentence this should be done by your solicitor or your
barrister depending on your circumstances purpose is to ensure its
much leniency from the court as possible there are 18 things that I would kind of
look at what I'm doing it for a client of mine first thing would be the family
situation the background the history of my client you just like to know well
assume you would just like to know what is the family background or what are the
circumstances that led to this particular person being before the court
on this particular day or indeed other days for various offenses so that's one
thing second thing is the work history and the current circumstances of the
person who has pleaded guilty and found guilty rather so you know of their
professional career what is the background what is their work history
have they been unemployed for quite some time have they ever worked of they had
good jobs and have their responsibilities
career it's hurting that would look at his the education or is the education of
circumstances of the person that's before the court of the next school
early do they have the third level education you know are they're
professionals or whatever the fourth thing right look at then and put before
the judge perhaps would be the age of the person so the level of maturity or
experience obviously will be a factor in its faces when you know I was 21 or 22 I
was a good bit less mature than I am now so an older person done as well I mean
if somebody is say over 65 over 70 or over 80 well then clearly the effect of
a custodial sentence on them is going to be fairly significant so that will be
taken into account by the court the fifth thing that you'll be looking at
would be the effect of jail on the particular person so you know on the
family circumstances is the client is the person who's convicted for the sole
breadwinner breadwinner in the household is Ryu Mullen in the household so even
though the judge may want to punish the person who has pleaded guilty of and
found guilty has been convicted of the offense the effect on the children of
that person may be something that the judge who want to avoid if we can help
earth so going to jail may not be the best option in that regard if he is the
sole breadwinner number six is the health of the convicted person this is
the factor or may be a factor in whatever sentence is going to be handed
out number seven is addictions do they have difficulties addictions to drugs or
drink or anything else gambling etc which might explain to a certain extent
the fact that had before the courts for various offenses what are the efforts at
rehabilitation that the person has made as property or money been recovered and
have they made genuine efforts to deal with the difficulties the personal
problems be gambling or Beach alcoholism Oh beer whatever remorse stan is number
nine have they shown remorse he'll be looking
to the guard to confirm that they you know we're
cooperative and remorseful etcetera etcetera but you know it depends
obviously on the circumstances you can mislead the court either or tell
barefaced lies has the person made an apology and have they made any
restitution an apology would be something that would be very important
in a situation where the client or my client might be convicted of assault for
example of the made restitution so having made compensation if it was you
know physical or material damage that was carried out or perhaps money or
something that was taken well then have they you know
restore that money the apology is there an apology and it's a genuine -
obviously it's good to be able to tell her George
your client is apologetic and recognizes the silliness foolishness and
wrongheaded behavior that have been engaged in number 11 have they been
cooperative with the Guardi if you plead guilty at an early stage you're gonna
have no difficulty well little difficulty getting the Guardi to accept
and perhaps give evidence if necessary that your client has been cooperative
with them from the word go however if your client insists on fighting the case
the whole way to the end goes to a hearing gets a boatload of witnesses in
to give evidence and puts the stage or the prosecution to a significant degree
of cost and time well then they're hardly going to agree that he would
cooperative or she was cooperative so that's something that you need to
consider the twelfth thing that you'll be looking at would be is the plea if
it's applicant deeply at an early stage or is it as a a protracted prosecution
and it hasn't been delays and ultimately a hearing involving witnesses and so on
the next thing that we'll be looking at would be previous convictions has the
client previous convictions what is the number four heart how long ago clearly
conviction only last month or six months ago is a far more significant to
significance to a judge than a conviction maybe ten fifteen years ago
where somebody might have gone it you know on a weekend being bender or
binge or stag party perhaps in the Carrick on Shannon or Castle bar or West
Portal somewhere and they got done for Public Order offenses so you know the
nature of the convictions how many and how long ago would be factors that a
judge will take into account the circumstances of previous convictions is
important as a CA is running mitigating circumstances forced evictions was the
question of maturity or immaturity perhaps as a safe stag weekend public
order offence urinating in the street you mean you're 21 or 22 years of age
and watch the peer pressure or perhaps was the person in the desperate
financial straits in other words where they compelled for example of felt
compelled under duress to maybe take money from the workplace
where they were facing perhaps eviction from a house or foreclosure on a
mortgage or something like that next thing I'd be looking at would be any
hardship ending is really a an impending charge or any loss of job or loss of
marriage or any other hardship ending or likely to be the outcome as a result of
the conviction or the pending charge so clearly losing your job this is a good
job even if you are not so good so I'm losing a job is a very very significant
penalty and that's obviously going to be a side consequence or byproduct of
whatever penalty the court might hand down so that's something that the court
will have to consider compensation to an injured party is another one
particularly with the assault case so you know what compensation offered and
was it actually forked out whether the person is perhaps a non-national having
any difficulties with language that would have any particular difficulties
if they were sent to prison because of their lack of communication skills or
the fact that they're not Irish that might be a factor as well in a judge's
consideration in relation to the sentence to be handed down finally was
the person on run a duress or provocation which led to the commission
of the offense obviously duress or provocation can only
go so far but certainly I mean they can be factors and the judge should be made
aware of any provocation or duress that was present which might have given rise
to the conduct which led to the conviction my name is Terry Gauri if you
like the video you might give it your thumbs up in my youtube channel or
Facebook or wherever you come across this and you might let me know as well
in the comments what type of video you'd like me to see see me making I have a
lot of videos on YouTube but all aspects are very slow thanks for watching