§ 516 Plea of guilty.

If you're charged with a crime, only you can enter a guilty plea, and you have to do it in person in court. Nobody else can plead guilty for you, not even your lawyer. You need to be standing before the judge to say it yourself.

There's one exception to this rule. If a company or corporation is the one charged with a crime, its lawyer can enter the guilty plea on its behalf. This makes sense because a corporation can't physically appear in court to speak for itself.

This rule exists to protect defendants. Pleading guilty is a serious decision that gives up your right to a trial, so the law wants to make sure you're the one making that choice, not someone speaking for you.