The United States Supreme Court again tells us something that we probably already knew.  The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution not only requires attorneys to provide competent representation during jury trials, motion hearings, sentencing hearings, etc., it also requires that they provide competent advice during any plea bargaining and advice clients of all offers from the prosecution.  The bottom rule is that attorneys should be on the ball at all hours of the job - whether it be a jury trial or a simple one-on-one negotiation with the prosecution. 

It was a 5-4 decision with the usual cast of (conservative) suspects representing the minority (Justices Scalia, Alito, Roberts (chief), and Thomas).  Apparently those four think that a defendant is not prejudiced when a criminal defense attorneys lets things slide in the plea bargaining stage. . .

(Missouri v. Frye (2012) No. 10-444)
(Lafler v. Cooper (2012) No. 10-209)