Quote Quoting Mr. Knowitall
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And that would be bad advice. The availability of diversion programs, deferral and the like allows somebody to take responsibility for their actions to the full satisfaction of the state, the prosecutor and the court without getting a criminal conviction.
This point regarding diversion is a very good one.

As you well know, courts can be very different depending locality. Around here, someone is either eligible for diversion or not - and it's not a big secret, nor does it take an attorney to get them into it. The courts around here WANT people in diversion if they are eligible because it saves them money and reduces recidivism (supposedly.) So no one here needs to go through any large feats to get into diversion. In fact, if they stumble into court not knowing the difference between a judge and a lawyer, or a misdemeanor and a felony, go before the judge and say "Yeah, I did it, just send me to jail," the judge will likely say "It looks like you're a diversion candidate. Go see probation, they'll explain diversion to you, and if you complete it successfully I'll withdraw your guilty plea and enter a finding of not guilty." There's no magic to be worked.

Owing to the fact that courts can work differently, what I said above is not going to be universal, and in a person's own area they might need to plead not guilty and/or get a lawyer to get diversion.