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According to the full case log maintained by the judiciary’s secretaries and registrars, roughly 40% of all criminal cases in 2025 ended with a verdict. Similarly, 40% ended in plea deals, whereas the remaining 20% ended in dismissals, withdrawals, or mistrials.
Comparing these numbers to the ones from July onwards only, there can be seen a stark increase in “other” ends to trials (what was previously the “remaining 20%”), namely to 30%. While the percentage of dismissals has gone down by a few percent, the amount of prosecutions where the Department of Justice decided to withdraw its charges has increased significantly.
Before examining potential reasons for this, it should be mentioned that this data has been extrapolated from a very small sample size: 120 cases for the first statistic and only 27 for the second one. If there is anything to be learnt from this even despite the low sample size, it might be that the DoJ has started charging for more offences without merit, something that would be in line with the recent employment problems the department has been facing, being unable to find competent lawyers willing to work as state attorneys.
But on the other hand, these numbers are still much “better” than the ones in real life. For example in the USA’s federal court, 98% of cases end in plea bargains which is a far greater number than our measly 40%. In America, plea agreements have become a common practice ensuring efficiency within trials while sacrificing accuracy and fairness. Innocent defendants are often coerced into them by the intimidating nature of long minimum sentences, according to a report by the American Bar.
The National Public Radio warns us of the potential negative effects too many pleas might have on a justice system as a whole with the following words:
“Pleas can allow police and government misconduct to go unchecked, because mistakes and misbehavior often only emerge after defense attorneys gain access to witness interviews and other materials, with which they can test the strength of a government case before trial.”
When trying to assess if this might be applicable to SimDemocracy, the answer is a resounding no. There are far fewer plea agreements being made here than in the USA, there are far better oversight mechanisms into government agencies (mostly the DoJ) here than in the USA, and there are less factors potentially causing state attorneys to pressure defendants into plea deals such as costs for trial which are (of course) far lower here due to them not having to happen in a physical courtroom.