Pleading “no contest” is often only to the benefit of the person’s pride. No contest means you’re conceding the charge without admitting guilt and without presenting a defense. But unlike a plea of guilty or innocent, a defendant must get a court’s consent to plead no contest, which comes with certain legal consequences.

A plea is a person’s formal response to a criminal or traffic charge. A person charged with a criminal or traffic offense is called the defendant. The defendant can choose from the pleas of guilty, not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity, or no-contest. Entering a plea refers to the judge’s act of formally noting a defendant’s plea, or “entering” it, in the court’s official file. If you enter a no-contest plea, it means that, while you do not admit your guilt, you do admit the truth of the facts alleged in the indictment, information or complaint (the so-called “charging” documents that start a criminal or traffic case). No-contest pleas are sometimes known as “nolo contendere” or just “nolo” pleas.

Sometimes there’s no difference whatsoever and sometimes there’s a big difference. If you plead guilty, you are admitting to the facts and the legal consequences of those facts. The benefit of a no-contest plea (when you admit the facts, but not your guilt) is that it allows you to avoid a trial if your defense has become hopeless, but it prevents the plea from being used against you in any later civil or criminal proceeding. It also allows you the opportunity to appeal rulings by the court, such as rulings allowing certain evidence to be used by the government.

The only way the judge would find you not guilty on your no-contest plea is if there is a mistake in the “charging” document (if, for example, it leaves out a critical part of the charge) or because the prosecutor’s recitation of facts (where required) doesn’t match up to the facts stated in the charging document. This is rare.

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.