Carlton Fields’ Michael Yaeger Authors Law360 Article About Capitalizing on Data to Challenge Sentencing Guidelines
January 29, 2021
Carlton Fields attorney and Empirical Justice LLC founder Michael Yaeger authored a Law360 article, “Challenging Sentencing Guidelines with Comparable Cases,” highlighting how defense attorneys can capitalize on data to challenge sentencing guidelines for their clients.
The ranges of recommended federal prison time provide judges with an anchoring effect. Judges tend to give sentences within the guidelines, regardless of consistency with comparable cases.
However, Yaeger advises that there is a very valuable approach to attack this anchoring effect. Defense counsel can commission a statistical analysis to compare cases, and eventually, create an effective argument by analogy, significantly reducing clients’ sentences.
