Plea Bargain

agreement according to which the accused will cooperate with the prosecution and will get a reduced sentence as a reward, compromise between the person suing and the one being sued

A plea bargain (also plea agreement, plea deal or copping a plea) is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. The defendant agrees to plead guilty  (and often allocute) or no contest and in some cases to also provide testimony against another person in exchange for some agreement from the prosecutor as to the punishment. A plea bargain can also include the prosecutor agreeing to charge a lesser crime (also called reducing the charges), and dismissing some of the charges against the defendant. In most cases, a plea bargain is used to reduce jail sentence time or fines associated to the crime being charged with.
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Noun
1. (criminal law) a negotiation in which the defendant agrees to enter a plea of guilty to a lesser charge and the prosecutor agrees to drop a more serious charge; "his admission was part of a plea bargain with the prosecutor"; "plea bargaining helps to stop the courts becoming congested"
(synonym) plea bargaining
(hypernym) bargaining
(derivation) plea-bargain
(classification) criminal law

Verb
1. agree to plead guilty in return for a lesser charge; "If he plea-bargains, he will be sent to a medium-security prison for 8 years"
(hypernym) agree
(derivation) plea bargain, plea bargaining
(classification) law, jurisprudence

An negotiated agreement between the defense and the prosecution in a criminal case. Typically the defendant agrees to plead guilty to a specified charge in exchange for an oral promise of a lower sentence.