Attorneys cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to advise a defendant that he or she may lose his or her pension if he or she enters a guilty plea to criminal charges, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
The majority of the court decided that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, which established that attorneys are obliged to advise clients of the collateral deportation consequences of a guilty plea, did not apply because the loss of pension rights is a less severe consequence than deportation, nor was the Public Employee Pension Forfeiture Act crafted to be punitive.
