My friend was charged with a class 3 misdemeanor for filing a false police report. She is required to show up in court at Amherst tomorrow and she waited to show up the last minute and didn’t talk to a lawyer and really doesnt want to pay for one.
She has no prior charges on her but has really no chance of winning the case so she is wondering if she should plead not guilty or guilty/no contest during the arraignment. I have heard that Amherst likes to plea bargain so would it be smart for her to plead not guilty or would she be better saying guilty and just taking the standard punishment which from what I have heard so far is just community service, fine, and maybe a class?
I know there is not a real lawyer but I am just looking to see if anyone is more familiar with the actual process and typical punishments since all my court stuff was through mail.
