Dual Purposes of a Plea Bargaining Simulation: Pedagogical Skills Training and Controlled Data Collection Experiment

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Abstract

This article contributes to the growing body of scholarship on the pedagogical value of including experiential learning through simulation exercises in podium courses. These articles have compellingly argued for the integration of simulations to cultivate essential lawyering skills – such as fact development, client interviewing, and negotiation – a need further underscored by the American Bar Association’s new focus on skills and the upcoming NextGen Bar Exam. As the legal academy continues to integrate doctrine and skills, breaking down distinctions between podium faculty and lawyering/clinical faculty, emphasizing the former’s role in lawyering skills development becomes increasingly vital.

My article discusses the plea bargaining simulation I assign in Criminal Procedure II, where each student signs up as a prosecutor or a defense lawyer to be paired up with an opposing counsel to see if they can reach a plea bargain based on a fictional scenario. Research assistants played the defendant and victim. To complete the assignment, students must engage in fact development, client or witness communication and interviewing, and negotiation – all important skills for litigation-bound law students. My article further introduces an innovative empirical dimension to simulation-based assignments by introducing a victim’s lawyer (also played by a research assistant) into half of the prosecution-side simulations, I created a controlled comparison between a test group (those interacting with the victim’s lawyer) and a control group (those dealing directly with the victim). This design yielded data demonstrating a statistically significant increase in both the amount of restitution bargained for and the frequency of prosecutor contacts when the victim was represented.

First Page

187

Last Page

215

Publication Date

2026

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS