ADR in the Context of Criminal Cases

Negotiating Crime: Plea Bargaining, Problem Solving, and Dispute Resolution in the Criminal Context, is a new book focusing on plea bargaining and other use of alternative dispute resolution in the context of criminal cases. It is authored by law professors Cynthia Alkon  (Texas A&M) and Andrea Schneider (Marquette).

Andrea Schneider on Plea Bargaining

Marquette Law Professor Andrea Schneider on plea bargaining here at the ADR Prof Blog.  She cites a recent Human Rights Watch report and her study in describing plea bargaining as a "negotiation system that is fundamentally flawed."  The New York Times story she cites: "Prosecutors respond that using leverage to obtain plea bargains with clearly guilty defendants is a sound way to conserve resources and obtain cooperation."  "William G. Otis, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and a former federal prosecutor, said that the reason defendants were in a poor bargaining position was not a result of prosecutors’ abuse, but because “there is solid proof they committed a crime.”

Plea Bargaining Incentives

Settlement negotiation in criminal cases is typically called "plea bargaining."  In plea bargaining, as in civil-case settlement negotiation, incentives matter -- not just the parties' incentives but also their lawyers' incentives.  This from Cynthia Alkon is a good example.