Potential disadvantages of plea bargaining

• By making a plea of bargaining, the accused no doubt accepts his guilt, and he even gets punished for his wrong, but many times it is seen that the accused often escapes to get a reasonable punishment, which results in no much improvement in his behaviour. Also, plea bargaining can result in the accused person avoiding accountability for their actions, as they are able to plead guilty to a lesser charge without having to go through a trial. This is a form of leniency that may not be justified in some instances. 
• In most cases, the victim is a common person who does not know his rights, and if he doesn’t get a good attorney who could give him better advice, the decisions he makes will affect him as well as society in the long term. So it is always advisable to go for a good advocate. The guilty person may, after coming out without facing a proper sentence, try again to attack the victim.
• By pleading a sentence, the process of an ordinary trial need not be complied with. This results in quickly completing the trial, but the downside of this is that the constitutional right of the victim to get a complete trial is affected. This depends on the will of the person as to whether he is satisfied with the decision of the court in which plea bargaining was made or he wants more strict punishment for the offender by going through a complete process, which will be difficult for the defendant to comply with.
• By accepting guilt even under plea bargaining, the defendant will be considered to have a criminal record, which could be problematic for him in the future. Moreover, he also has to pay the required costs until the trial is completed.
• By pleading guilty to a lesser charge, the accused person is giving up their right to a fair trial. This can be problematic if the accused is innocent and is pressured into pleading guilty to avoid the risk of a harsher sentence at trial.
• In cases of plea bargaining, the judge has a major role in finalising whether the accused plea is to be entertained or not. There are various factors that determine it, such as the nature and gravity of the offence, the role of the accused in the commission of the crime, the needs of the victim, and the public interest.
• There are chances that the accused is made to choose the route of plea bargaining by misrepresenting its benefit, and because there are fewer chances for the victim to appeal in such cases, the victim has to face punishment even if he is innocent in reality.
• The clean record of a person who is made to face a sentence in one or another case gets tarnished, because of which the person might lose his job or find difficulty looking for a new job. During that time, the person is also unable to fulfil his domestic obligations. 
• The victim, in the hope of having the accused punished to the maximum possible extent for his wrong, feels cheated by the attorney, who tries to make him understand the concept of plea bargaining. A common man, in his emotions, doesn’t understand the workings of the system much and just wants to grill the wrongdoer for his wrong. But unfortunately, this is not how the system works.