Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

There is very little difference between a guilty plea and a no contest plea; either way, the person who enters these pleas will be found guilty and subject to the same potential penalties in a criminal, ordinance or traffic prosecution in question. No contest pleas do provide a slight advantage if there is possible civil litigation likely to follow, for example, in a scenario involving a car accident, where other drivers may sue later to recover medical expense, property damage and disability. In the event of a no contest plea, the fact of the conviction in the criminal case cannot be mentioned to the jury in the civil suit, whereas the opposite is true if the plea was "guilty."

The abbreviation PSI usually refers to a presentence investigation report in a felony case; a critical document used both by the judge in deciding the sentence in a felony case, and by the DOC, also known as the Department of Corrections, in determining where a defendant will be imprisoned and the level of the security threat which that person poses to the community as well as to other inmates (a process known as "classification"). My comments in this online forum are not intended as legal advice to anyone, nor do they create an attorney client relationship between us, unless you subsequently retain me and revisit the issue with me later.