If I’ve been arrested, why is it important that I don’t talk to any one other than my attorney?
Back to Video Frequently Asked Questions
Video Transcription
If you’ve been arrested the only person you should talk to about your situation is a qualified criminal defense lawyer and here’s why… anything you tell the lawyer is confidential and sometimes, even when you’re innocent, when you tell people things that aren’t your criminal defense lawyer, it ends up sounding like you’re guilty. In other words, we can sometimes remember… maybe some of you have heard of the old story, where at campfire and you tell someone a sentence and by the time it makes it all the way around the campfire telling all these other people, it’s a completely different sentence.
And that’s the same way it works when someone has been arrested for something…goes home and tells their husband, then their husband tells their friend, and then they tell someone else…then suddenly it ends up that you commit the offense and “boy, they’re worried about getting caught because, you know, they’re guilty,” when in fact all they said was they’re worried because they’ve been arrested.
That’s just sorta the tip of the iceberg. Here’s what you need to be thinking about if you’re ever arrested for anything. You have a right to the most sacred confidential relationship that exists in the United States of America—that’s between an attorney and his or her client. So why would you break that sacred trust, where you have something in a vault, where no one can get access to, ever? Why would you break that by telling people, who by the way aren’t trained to be able to help you to begin with?
The final thing you need to think about is if you are ever arrested, and people want to know what happened—because they love you and they care about you and they want to know…you need to tell them this, and this is what I always tell clients—tell them that I’ve advised you, as your attorney, that you cannot talk to them. Make me the heavy, you don’t have to be the heavy…but I’m only worried about your well being and that way is a way you can protect your rights, but also not offend those that love you and just want to help you.
