Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

None, as far as I know, unless there was a total refusal to negotiate with your representative in the customary fashion. Negotiations do not necessarily need to occur at the time of the scheduled pretrial; they could occur earlier. It is entirely possible that your attorney had a conference with the prosecutor earlier, allowing your attorney to report on the outcome without the prosecutor being present. Pretrials are usually very informal hearings in which the judge is not involved at all. Instead, it may only be an appointment for the opposing attorneys to meet and discuss the case. If they cannot agree, a totally different type of a hearing needs to occur later in front of the judge or jury, known as a trial. At that time, the neutral decision maker would decide the case based upon the evidence presented, totally independent from any negotiations which would have occurred earlier at the pretrial stage. In fact, any settlement offers or comments relating to them are restricted from use at trial, since the legal system wishes to encourage parties to negotiate without fear that things said during negotiations may be used against them later in court. My comments here are not legal advice, nor do they create an attorney client relationship between us; rather they are only for public educational purposes on this website. You are, however, always welcome to contact my office in Racine to discuss any additional questions which you may have or to set up a free consultation.