ABSTRACT
Plea negotiations are a well-known and accepted form of justice in Australia, as they are in many other jurisdictions. Despite being subject to many cogent criticisms, the persistence and pervasiveness of the process is evidence of an underlying utility and logic to this practice in adversarial legal settings. This chapter describes plea negotiations in Australia with particular emphasis on the state of Victoria. It reports on a study which sought to shed light on the process by providing an empirical account of the practices involved. Locating the process within the Victorian legal environment, the chapter identifies 14 forms of plea negotiation, as well as differences in negotiation practices between offenses. The chapter also reports on the outcomes of negotiations, with a key focus on challenges that arise in relation to unrepresented defendants and the dangers of idiosyncratic justice. The chapter concludes that plea negotiations do not operate outside the law and play an important role in the criminal justice system. However, they remain a pragmatic form of somewhat mysterious justice in a largely unknown and imperfect system.
