If you’ve ever sat through any of the true crime documentaries that have taken the world by storm over the past five or so years, you should have some idea of why your first step after being questioned by the police should be to contact a lawyer. However, aside from the obvious point, which is that you can end up incriminating yourself in ways you would never have imagined, there are other reasons to enlist legal help when the police are involved, some of which we’re going to discuss in this post.
The Consequence Of The Outcome Can Reverberate Throughout Your Life
When you’re intercepted by the police for whatever matter, the outcome of their line of questioning can impact the rest of your life. When you hire an experienced criminal defense attorney, you will reduce the threat of jail time and the stain to your good name, which tends to stick around for a long time. This is because, even with the best intentions in the world, the job of a police officer is to detain, arrest, and charge those who they believe have been involved in a criminal action. The key word there is “believe.” Even though most police officers are perfectly competent at what they do, they are still human, and just like the rest of us, they can make mistakes. However, the difference between them and us is that their mistakes can have significant consequences for the remainder of our lives and possibly even result in prison time. By choosing to have a lawyer present before answering any questions or agreeing to interrogation, you are ensuring that you are fully protected under the laws of the land and that you won’t have the towel thrown at you based on the belief of a beat cop who might have simply had a bad day. An attorney ensures that everything is done by the book and that you won’t answer any questions that might incriminate yourself or are seemingly unrelated to the case.
It’s Your Right
Aside from any other reason, the fact of the matter is that it is your right to an attorney. This might differ slightly in its interpretation based on the country you’re being prosecuted in, but in the US, it’s guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, and any attempts to stop you from contacting a lawyer could even result in your case being thrown out altogether. This is why whenever you’re being questioned, you’re first given the Miranda rights, which essentially states that anything you say will probably be used as evidence against you. Moreover, your right to silence is another fundamental right and one that isn’t an admission of guilt. This is why most lawyers will state no comment on your behalf until the time is such that you have got your story straight together. Regardless of any overwhelming evidence against you, you have a constitutional right to ask for a lawyer and only answer the questions they advise you to answer (and even then, you don’t need to answer them, but it’s advisable to do so if your lawyer suggests so).
Police Tactics Can Manipulate Statements
As we alluded to in the introduction regarding those true crime documentaries, plenty of people are now well aware of the various tactics that police use to eke out a confession. While we can’t blame them in most cases (after all, they want to create a cut-and-dry case that will slide through court effectively), they can sometimes incriminate you for different things. Police interrogations are designed to tie you up in knots and leave you open to stipping over yourself, and even if you’re not guilty, if the integration video is shown in court, it’s easy to see how the jury might interpret your slip-ups as an intention to lie, even if not proof of guilt (thus putting you in a bad light right from the get-go). When you have a lawyer by your side, you’re making sure that any tactics being attempted upon you are halted immediately and that you’re only answering non-incriminating ones.
Innocent Statements Can Implicate You
Believe it or not, even an innocent statement could implicate you if you’re unaware of what’s happening behind the scenes. This might be a casual remake taken out of context (in the case of sarcasm) or ambiguity that leaves your stems open to further lines of questioning. The way that you answer the questions might lead police onto other lines of information that may end up being entirely inconducive to your situation and leaving you baffled at how simply stating that you’re innocent has turned into a declaration of your involvement in a crime. That might sound hyperbolic, but this can happen without you even being aware of it. This is why the Fifth Amendment exists: to protect you against wrongful incrimination and to ensure that the law is carried out justly and is equal for all.
Lawyers Understand Legal Intricacies Better
If all of the previous points haven’t been clear enough, the simple fact is that criminal lawyers understand the intricacies of the law far better than you ever will. They have trained their entire lives in how to walk the fine line between the art and science of law and, in many cases, will have expertise on a range of cases and previous legal precedents that might assist you in your case. This is also why representing yourself in court is typically not a good idea. You are more likely to tie yourself up in misunderstandings and become the victim of leading questions you never saw coming. Although it can appear frustrating to the casual outside observer when they see footage of an attorney consistently advising the client to state “no comment” to every question, thus hindering the police’s ability to question, the fact is that they’re performing a crucial service by utilizing their broad knowledge of the law to ensure that justice is served and is the same for everyone, and is a right to be protected, not merely a privilege open to those who can afford it.
If you find yourself at the end of a barrage of questions from the police, your best option is to remain polite but refuse to answer any questions until you have a lawyer present. You might end up inside an interrogation room, but this is vastly superior to having your reputation tarnished and possibly losing your freedom from a misunderstanding or self-incrimination.
