Sentencing Discount for Guilty Pleas (NSW)

When a person pleads guilty to criminal offences, the court extends them a sentencing discount in consideration of the time and resources they have saved the court by not requiring it to hold a contested hearing to prove them guilty. New South Wales amended its laws with respect to sentencing discounts for guilty pleas in 2017. This page deals with the sentencing discount for guilty pleas in New South Wales.

Legislation

Division 1A of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 sets out when the sentencing discount for guilty pleas is to be applied and the amount of reduction that is to be extended.

Section 33B of the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 sets out how a sentencing discount is to be applied in the Children’s Court.

Reasons for the reforms

The 2017 reforms introduced included the following measures:

• Fixed mandatory sentencing discounts for guilty pleas
• Requirement for structured negotiations between parties, to be formally recorded
• Requirement for prosecution evidence to be disclosed at an early stage

The changes aimed to encourage early appropriate guilty pleas in indictable matters to reduce the backlog caused by criminal matters being set down for committal, and even for trial, only to be resolved with guilty pleas entered at a late stage in proceedings.

Discounts for pleading guilty

The discounts that a person receives for pleading guilty are set out in section 25D of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999. A person who pleads guilty prior to the committal stage will receive a sentencing discount of 25%. A person who pleads guilty after the committal but at least 10 days before the commencement of the trial (or having complied with pre-trial notice requirements), they will receive a sentencing discount of 10%. If a person pleads guilty at any later stage, they will receive a 5% sentencing discount.

Sentencing discounts for children

If a child pleads guilty to an offence on indictment, the above sentencing discounts will be applied.

If a child pleads guilty to an offence in the Children’s Court, under section 33B of the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987, their guilty plea is to be taken into account at sentencing. However, there is no prescribed amount by which the sentence must be reduced.  

Rational for the sentencing discount for guilty pleas

The sentencing discount that is extended when an accused person pleads guilty has several rationales. Firstly, it recognizes that the accused has taken responsibility for their actions. Secondly, it recognizes that the guilty plea has saved the criminal justice system the time and expense of running a contested trial.

Negotiating a plea

When a person is charged with indictable offence that are triable summarily, it may be possible to keep the matter in a lower court rather than dealing with the charges on indictment. This is often preferable from a defence point of view, as in the Local Court the maximum penalty that can be imposed for a single offence is two years imprisonment, meaning the total sentence that is received will generally be lower than if the matter were dealt with in a higher court.

If a person admits involvement in the alleged offending but does not agree to plead guilty to all the charges, or disputes the police summary of what occurred, it is often possible to negotiate for the withdrawal of some charges or for the amendment of the police summary of facts, in order to facilitate a guilty plea at an early opportunity.

Negotiating the resolution of a criminal matter at an early stage can avoid the need to go through protected proceedings as well as allowing the accused to take full advantage of the sentencing discount for a plea of guilty.

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