Safe Havens

If counsel has reached a safe haven agreement with the prosecution, most judges will go along, since that minimizes their workload, by signing on to a settlement reached between the parties.  They also often trust the adversarial system and will assume the best resolution has emerged from the agreement of the two opposing parties.  Other judges, however, may pose difficulties even where the prosecution has agreed to a safe haven.

            Most judges were formerly prosecutors, often career prosecutors, and share the outlook and values of the prosecution.  They also, however, do feel some allegiance to the goal of fairness.  In general, approaches that work with prosecutors will be successful with the court.