# Deferred Prosecution Agreement > [!note] Stub > This is a short entry that hasn't been fully written yet. The federal corporate resolution in which the Department of Justice **files a criminal charge and then holds it**, agreeing not to proceed for a term of years while the company serves out compliance obligations, pays a penalty, and cooperates. At the end of the term the Department moves to dismiss. If the company breaches, the charge is already on the docket. It is the only one of the three non-conviction exits that produces a court record. Because a case is pending, the agreement is filed, a case number exists, a judge is assigned, and the document can be pulled by anyone. The judicial role, however, is almost nothing: it rests entirely on the words "with the approval of the court" in [[Speedy Trial Act]] § 3161(h)(2), and two circuits have now read those words to reach one question only — whether the agreement is a genuine good-conduct arrangement rather than a device for parking the speedy trial clock. See [[United States v. Fokker Services]] and [[United States v. HSBC Bank USA]]. Distinguish it from its near twin, the [[Non-Prosecution Agreement]], which looks almost identical in substance and involves no filing, no docket, and no judge at any point. The difference between the two is the subject of [[Deferred and Non-Prosecution Agreement Crosswalk]]. ## See also - [[Non-Prosecution Agreement]] · [[Deferred and Non-Prosecution Agreement Crosswalk]] - [[How a Federal Prosecution Begins and Ends]] · [[Prosecutorial Discretion]] · [[Speedy Trial Act]] - [[United States v. Fokker Services]] · [[United States v. HSBC Bank USA]] · [[Compliance Monitor]] - [[Justice Manual]] · [[Department of Justice]] · [[Elite Impunity]]