What Are the 3 Most Common Types of Plea Bargains?

The three most common types of plea bargains are charge bargains, sentence bargains, and count bargains. Each one trades a guilty or no contest plea for a different kind of concession from the prosecutor: a lower-level offense, a lighter sentence, or the dismissal of some counts. Together, these agreements resolve an estimated 90 to 95 percent of criminal cases in federal and state courts, which makes them the ordinary way American criminal cases end rather than a shortcut around trial.¹

Charge Bargains

In a charge bargain, you plead guilty to a less serious offense than the one originally filed. The focus is on the label of the crime, not the number of charges or the specific sentence. A common example: the prosecutor files felony assault, but agrees to let you plead to misdemeanor assault. That single step down can mean probation instead of prison, and it changes what shows up on your record for the rest of your life.

Charge bargains also happen inside the same family of offense. A defendant facing first-degree assault might plead to second-degree. Someone charged with aggravated battery might plead to simple battery. The conviction is still there, just at a lower degree with lighter penalties. Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11, a charge bargain can also take the form of a plea to a lesser or related offense, with the prosecution agreeing to drop or not bring the original charge.²

Prosecutors tend to offer charge bargains when the evidence would likely win at trial but a trial isn’t worth the time and uncertainty. For the defendant, the appeal is simple. A less serious conviction carries lower maximum penalties and often fewer collateral consequences for employment, housing, and professional licensing later on.

Sentence Bargains

A sentence bargain leaves the original charge alone. You plead guilty to the offense exactly as charged, and in exchange the prosecution agrees to recommend a specific sentence or sentencing range. You might plead to the felony as filed, with the prosecutor’s promise to ask for probation instead of prison, or for two years rather than the maximum ten.

Federal Rule 11 draws a distinction here that defendants often miss, and it changes what the deal is actually worth:

A non-binding recommendation means the prosecutor will ask the judge for a particular sentence, but the court is free to go higher. You cannot withdraw your plea simply because the judge disregarded the recommendation.²
A binding agreement is one where both sides agree a specific sentence is the right outcome. If the judge accepts the plea, the agreed sentence is locked in. If the judge won’t go along with it, the court must reject the whole agreement and give you the chance to withdraw your plea.²

With a non-binding recommendation, you are betting that the judge will follow the prosecutor’s suggestion. Most do give those recommendations significant weight, but they are not required to. A binding agreement gives you certainty, which is exactly why judges accept them less often: they shrink judicial discretion. If you are weighing a sentence bargain, finding out which type you are being offered is one of the first things to settle.

Count Bargains

Count bargains apply when you face multiple charges. You plead guilty to some of them, and the prosecutor dismisses the rest. A defendant charged with five counts of theft might plead to two while the other three go away. Federal Rule 11 specifically authorizes the government to move to dismiss other charges as part of a plea agreement.²

The counts do not have to be identical. In a case built on a string of related incidents, the prosecutor might keep the most serious count and drop the lesser ones, or dismiss counts that would be hardest to prove at trial. The benefit isn’t only cosmetic.

Fewer convictions can change how sentences run. When you are convicted on multiple counts, the judge decides whether the sentences run concurrently, served at the same time so you serve only the longest, or consecutively, stacked one after another so the total adds up. Dismissing counts removes the possibility of consecutive time on those charges altogether. Violent offenses and repeat offenders are more likely to draw consecutive sentences in the first place, so cutting the count of convictions in those cases can shrink total exposure considerably.

The Judge Still Has to Accept the Deal

A plea agreement is not final because the lawyers signed it. The judge decides whether to accept it, reject it, or defer a decision until after reviewing a presentence report.²

If the judge rejects a plea agreement involving dismissed charges or a binding sentence, the court must tell the parties on the record, warn you that it isn’t bound by the agreement, and give you the chance to withdraw your plea. If you choose to leave your plea in place after a rejection, the judge can dispose of the case less favorably than the deal would have.² That part surprises people. Staying in after a rejected deal hands the judge broad latitude on sentencing, potentially beyond what either side had in mind.

Judges weigh the seriousness of the offense, the defendant’s criminal history, whether the proposed outcome serves public safety, and the interests of victims. In federal court, the judge is explicitly not bound by the prosecutor’s sentencing recommendation, even when that recommendation is baked into the plea agreement.³

Guilty Plea or No Contest Plea

Any of these three bargains can be entered through either a guilty plea or a no contest plea (also called nolo contendere). The criminal consequences are the same: conviction and sentencing proceed identically. The difference shows up in a later civil lawsuit. A guilty plea can be used against you as evidence that you committed the act. A no contest plea generally cannot.

If you plead guilty to assault, the victim can point to that plea in a personal injury suit as proof of what happened. If you plead no contest to the same charge, the victim has to prove liability without leaning on the criminal plea. For defendants exposed to both criminal and civil liability, the choice can be worth real money. Not every court permits no contest pleas, and in federal court the judge must consent before you can enter one.²

1
Bureau of Justice Assistance. Plea and Charge Bargaining Research Summary
2
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 11 – Pleas
3
United States Department of Justice. Plea Bargaining