No, I don’t need the answer fast. But I’ve wondered about how people who have previously never had a criminal attorney get one in a hurry. I have used attorneys for civil matters before, but I wouldn’t call on one of them if I were at the police station accused of murder. And they probably wouldn’t take kindly to me calling them at 2 am for a referral.
So if you’re handcuffed and being questioned, state that you want an attorney, and given access to a phone, what do you do?
If I called a friend or relative for help, how would they find a criminal attorney? If I were to receive that call from someone, I supposed I’d wait until the next morning and start asking around for a reference, but that could take a while and it would still be pretty random.
Is it typical to just sit in jail a few days until your family or friends wrangle up a decent attorney?
(We can assume that I want to hire my own attorney and I’m not eligible for or want a public defender.)
At least in larger areas, their is an on-call attorney from the public defenders office available at night. (not a job anyone enjoys). The defendant isn’t required to retain them, or stick with them as the case progresses. They’re just their to answer questions that must be addressed immediately. (“Should I allow them to search my car? Should I take the breath test? They want me to appear in a line up.”) Most calls are DUIs around closing time. Once in awhile you do get a homicide or rape call. The DUIs can be handled over the phone. When someone is arrested for homicide, however, we had to get dressed and meet them at the jail.
Generally, it can wait until morning, and you’re friends and family start trying to wrangle up a good attorney for you. The lawyer who talks to you at 2:00 a.m., will probably just say “keep your mouth shut, invoke your right to counsel, and hire an attorney tomorrow.”)
This leads to some questions I was thinking about while reading that other nearby Police Interrogations thread.
Suppose I say “I want to speak to an attorney” or other equally unambiguous words. (No ifs or dawgs.) Then, given an opportunity to find an attorney or make a phone call, I simply don’t. Instead, given access to a phone, I just sit there.
Then what happens? Does the interrogation come to a screeching halt? Does it stay screeching halted for as long as I just sit there?
And next questions: Suppose I already know that I have the right to refuse to answer questions. Do I need to hire an attorney in the middle of the night just to tell me that? Suppose I tell the police: “I know I have the right to remain silent, and I hereby announce my intention to do so, and I don’t need no steenkin attorney to tell me that.” Does the interrogation stop? Or do they just keep firing questions at me as long as I just sit there? Will they try to bamboozle me into thinking I don’t have the right to stay silent? Will my words be used against me because I said “steenkin”? Will it matter if, y’know, I don’t actually answer any questions? Will they torture me until I talk? Will it make a difference if they Mirandized me or not, or if they should have?
If you’re arrested for horse fraud, call your local bar association and ask them for names of people who specialize in equestrian law. That’s how you get a lawyer.
Most people watch TV and are familiar with the local lawyer advertisements with easy to remember numbers like call 1 (800) GET-SCUM that will connect them with a 24 hour hotline to a lawyer. You don’t have to hire them on the spot, just set up a meeting.
Actually, once you say you will not answer questions without a lawyer present the questioning stops and you have the next day to make arrangements or a public defender will be assigned.
And yes you can sit in jail for a couple of days waiting for the “right” lawyer if the judge dosen’t give you bail that you can afford (depends on the crime).
Around these parts, there are only two lawyers who advertise on TV, and both of them specifically say, "If you’re in a car [or motorcycle] accident … " in every single ad. Not much use if you’re under arrest for armed robbery.
The question is how uncomfortable is it sitting in jail while waiting for the attorney. Movies and television give the idea that you’re stuck in a cell with others, some of whom are scary, and there’s not even any privacy when using the toilet. Under those circumstances, even an innocent person might agree to something just to get out of there. (On the other hand, if you’re in jail in Mayberry and being fed by Aunt Bea, perhaps it’s not so bad.)
I thought about planning ahead, meeting with a good criminal attorney and memorizing their office phone number, Just In Case. That’s probably overkill though. A college friend’s brother is a corporate attorney, so perhaps I’d call my friend and ask him to get his brother to recommend someone.
Is the only-allowed-one-phone-call bit real or just made up for the movies? Because many people today don’t have any numbers memorized, instead having them all stored on their cell phones.
There are a couple of different ways a person ends up in the criminal justice system, each of which might impact how they obtain an attorney:
- Summons. A summons is a notice to appear in court for a court date; it is usually issued after a minor infraction (most commonly, traffic) and does not entail taking the person into custody.
In these cases, you know you are supposed to be in court in a month, so the way to hire an attorney is by asking a friend or entering a google search. Then, you can usually get a free consultation, where you’ll go to their office and explain your case. If you agree to their fee, you’ll sign an agreement and then they take it from there.
- Issuance of an arrest warrant. Sometimes, a person pretty well knows that they are going to be arrested, even though no cops are standing in their door; this is usually because they’ve been engaged in ongoing criminality (perhaps drug dealing or economic crimes) and have realized that investigators are closing in.
This type of person is likely to hire a lawyer the same way as the guy with the summons (by going to the office, getting a consult, and paying a fee), except there’s no publicly open criminal case.
Usually, at that point, and depending on the nature of the investigation, the lawyer might call the PD to inquire if a warrant has been, or is going to be, issued. If that’s the case, the lawyer might be able to arrange to have the person surrender to authorities at a pre-arranged time so that they can quickly post bond (discussed below), rather than wait for a cop to track them down and take them to jail.
- Arrest. This would be the most common way a person enters the criminal justice system, and it occurs when the cops put the cuffs on you and haul your ass to jail, usually because they witnessed, or quickly came upon, the crime scene.
At that point, the next step is to get out of jail. This happens by posting bail (also called bond), which is usually involves paying an amount of money as a guarantee of your participation in the case (with the promise that the money will be returned once the case is over). In some instances, a PR (or ‘personal recognizance’) bond is issued instead, which is a mere promise to return to court.
Oftentimes, once the arrest paperwork is complete, the bond amount is preset, so you can post it immediately by making a call to somebody who has the money or putting it up yourself; there are people, called bondsmen, who will assist with the posting of the money, usually by collecting a fee of 10% of the bond amount. If you are in this situation, now is not the time to call a lawyer, since lawyers can’t post bond for their clients.
Other times, bond is not set when the person is arrested, so they are first required to see a judge, meaning they end up waiting in jail until a court date (in theory, the next day) - at that point, the judge will determine the bond and then, if it is an amount of money, it can be paid.
Now, some people can’t post bail because they don’t have any money and so will live in the jail until their trial. Those people, along with those inmates who need to wait to see a judge, will have a Public Defender assigned to them (Practically speaking, this means that the inmate will first see a lawyer when they have their first court date, who will talk to them in the courtroom in the minutes before addressing the judge). Others will get out, but still not have enough money to hire a lawyer, so they will also get the Public Defender assigned to them by filling out qualifying paperwork.
But, of the people who are arrested and brought to jail, there are those who will be able to hire a criminal defender. This may happen because they or their family calls up a lawyer and pays them money before they are bonded out (triggering that lawyer to go meet with them while they are in jail), or, after the bond is posted, the person (now back out of jail, but with an obligation to return to court for their next court date) will go to a lawyer’s office and sign the paperwork and pay the fee, just like the guy on summons or the guy awaiting an arrest. As before, the most common way (these days) to find a lawyer seems to be with an online search, although word of mouth is especially important.
Yes, you just sit there, and they go back to either finalizing your bond paperwork or scheduling you for a first appearance before a judge, so the judge can set bond.
If you invoke your right to not speak, they won’t ask you questions. Again, the point of processing you is to get you either bonded out or housed in jail. The fact that the police may also take this time to see if you’re willing to answer questions is just a matter of convenience for them, since you are sitting right there. If they needed you to make statements to establish a case, they wouldn’t have arrested you yet.
The number to memorize for when you go to jail is a friend or family member who loves you enough to come up with the money to bond you out. A lawyer can’t do that, but he will probably tell you to come see him once you are out of jail. Instead, in the absence of any ideas, call a bondsman. I don’t know for a fact, but I imagine that they advertise their services within the jail itself, or at least make their phone numbers known.
In my experience as the person who gets jail calls, they are allowed during certain times (when the inmates are not on lockdown). The impression I get, though, is that you may be trying to use the same phone at the same time as other people.
If you have used a lawyer for divorce or other non criminal case you can ask that lawyer for someone they recommend.
This is how my family member found out he was in trouble.
My state does not allow bondsmen
Two days in our case
I spent the next day making calls from online and the yellow pages searching for one that would help us.
In our case we were not able to visit nor phone since we did not have the system set up for about 4 days. The prison system updated after hours on Fridays. No contact until then. To receive calls or visitors required the inmate knowing the birthdates as “ID” of those that wanted to make contact.
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What happens when [del]I[/del] you are accused of murder or another non-bailable crime. Since you don’t have any close family/in that state how would one go about getting an attorney in that case as they probably have limited resources (like intertubez) in jail to do attorney research.
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What happens when [del]I[/del] you are arrested in state B for a crime in state A. Do you need an attorney licensed in state B if you want to fight extradition & one licensed in state A to fight the charges when you’re finally brought back?
Is fighting extradition worth it? I frequently hear (on the news) that the accused has waived their right to fight extradition. Is fighting it just a case of spending money to stay in state B longer because they almost always go thru or does it pay to fight it?
I have never needed a criminal attorney. I’ve needed another kind of attorney though. I’d call them and ask them who I should use.
You are typically going to need a lawyer licensed for the appropriate state. I mean, if you are being extradited from Jersey City to New York, you can probably find a lawyer licensed in both states, but it might be more difficult ( and expensive ) if the two states are New York and Utah.
There are very few circumstances where the governor of State B can refuse to turn you over in response to a governor’s warrant from State A.
- The documents are not in order
- The person named in the warrant hasn’t been charged with a crime.
- There’s a misidentification - the person in State B is not in fact the person charged with a crime in State A
- The person has a pending case or is serving a sentence in State B - which just delays the extradition until the court case is over or the sentence is compete ( in reality, the warrant wouldn’t be issued until that point).
It almost never pays to fight it - if it’s a matter of the documents not being order, they can be fixed fairly quickly. And if 2 or 3 happen, you will most likely be released fairly quickly - I get calls from out of state police and jails all the time asking for photos of my fugitive. It’s not uncommon for me to hear back within an hour that the person in custody is not the fugitive. I’ve never known of anyone who fought it and won.
This. I’ve never been arrested, but if I were I’d call an attorney/friend and ask him to step up. When one of my nephews was arrested, nephew called me and I arranged representation.
Yes it stops. Never once in 22 years have I waited for a lawyer to show up then continued the questions. It just stops and either you go home if not detained or we continue with processing. We are not waiting for a lawyer to do the things we need to that will happen lawyer or not.
It stops. In my state at least it’s extremely clear. If questioning continues after you state you want to remain silent then the whole thing will get thrown out.
As stated in that other thread, your rights don’t suddenly appear with Miranda. You always have the right to remain silent. (Let’s leave out court testimony, when you are compelled to testify and contempt. That’s a judge thing not a cop thing) Miranda warnings have to be stated if the criteria reached by the court in that case are met. That only applies to when the cops have to tell you your rights, not when your rights kick in.
Most people who have been arrested will need a lawyer. Almost none will need a lawyer when you get arrested. If there is probable cause for an arrest a lawyer is not going to help you not get arrested. If a judge sets bail at the time of the arrest a lawyer will not help you unless he’s going to pay your bail. If you get remanded to jail without bail a lawyer isn’t going to jail with you but it will be a good idea if one is there at your first appearance whenever that will be. Asking for a lawyer will stop your questioning. It will not stop your processing. You don’t have to answer questions about your crime but no one is waiting for a lawyer before asking for your biographical information or fingerprinting you or taking your picture or giving you a breath test. Calling your lawyer in the middle of the night will get you a bill but will most often not change what is happening to you initially. But it’s your right to consult with one so go right ahead if it makes you feel better. I can’t remember one time when a lawyer showed up at the police station after an arrest. At most they fax over a form saying my client will not make any statements without a lawyer present. If you already asked for a lawyer the questioning was already over.
Depends on if you want a criminal attorney or a criminal attorney.
Suppose you’re arrested for a crime you didn’t commit. It’s heinous enough that your bail is set pretty high – say, $250,000. No one in your family has that kind of money. so you go to a bail bondsman.
Later it’s determined you didn’t do the crime. Is it all, “Gee, we’re sorry about that $25k, but these things happen”? Or is there some mechanism where you can get your money back? Do you have to sue the jurisdiction that arrested you? Does it matter if charges were dropped before your case went to trial or if the jury found you not guilty?
I find that teasing them about their conviction rate over a friendly beer usually does it. 