In the upcoming term, the US Supreme Court will hear a pair of appeals from criminal defendants who allege that they did not have competent assistance of counsel during plea bargaining. In one case, Lafler v. Cooper, the defendant states that he rejected a plea offer after his lawyer misunderstood the law and gave him bad advice based on that misunderstanding. The defendant was convicted after a jury trial and got a worse sentence than the plea offer. In the second case, State v. Frye, the defendant’s lawyer failed to tell him about a misdemeanor plea deal and he plead guilty to a felony.

The ABA filed an amicus brief supporting the right to effective assistance of counsel at the plea bargaining stage. The brief is available at: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/amicus/frye_brief.authcheckdam.pdf .

For additional information on SCOTUSblog and amicus briefs see http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/missouri-v-frye/ and http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/lafler-v-cooper/ .