Although the plea choice is up to you, you should heed your lawyer's advice. He or she can objectively determine whether you should plead not guilty and face a trial, or whether you should admit guilt and bargain for the most lenient sentence possible. Not guilty The police may have charged the defendant with a mugging after the victim identified him or her and the arresting officer found the victim's wallet in the defendant's pocket. Even if they are guilty, defendants can always assert their innocence. Guilty A guilty plea means that you admit to committing the crime with which you have been charged.
Most guilty pleas are the result of plea-bargaining.
A nolo contendere plea means that you do not contest the charges levied against you. In criminal practice, it has the same effect as a guilty plea. Certain defendants prefer nolo contendere over guilty because they expect their plea to be used as evidence in a civil trial. However, in some jurisdictions, courts do not consider a nolo contendere criminal plea as an admission of guilt for civil proceedings. This means that in a civil suit, the plaintiff would have to work harder to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the defendant committed the crime in order to recoup monetary damages.