Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Andy Nelson:''' Do I need a lawyer?

 

In crime dramas, when someone is arrested, he is read his [[Miranda Rights]], "You have the right to remain silent," "You have the right to an attorney," etc. It seems, however, that all good, law-abiding citizens are willing to waive their rights and talk to the police without any qualms at all. But as soon as someone demands a lawyer, or refuses to talk without one, you know instantly that he is a sleazeball. Maybe not the one the police are actually seeking, but he is definitely someone of ill repute.

 

This is a subtrope of [[Artistic License: Law]]. See also [[Be as Unhelpful as Possible]].

{{examples}}

* Completely defied in ''[[Powers]]'' when Detective Pilgrim is being questioned by [[Internal Affairs]]. As soon as she realizes how serious the investigation is, she asks for a lawyer. The internal affairs investigator tries to imply this trope, roughly saying "You know what they say about people who insist on getting their lawyer..." to which Pilgrim responds "Yeah. They say that those people are smart."

 

* Stated as true by [[Jon Hamm]]'s character in ''[[The Town]]''. Semi-lampshaded in that he prefaces it with saying "it isn't a very civil libertarian thing" for him (a cop) to say.

* In ''[[Spider-Man: No Way Home]]'', both MJ and Aunt May tell Peter not to say anything about the accusations he's facing until he gets a lawyer. A Damage Control agent tries pulling this on MJ to get her to talk, but she calls him out on it.

 

* Invoked and inverted in the second ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' book. Eddie has been detained on suspicion of drug smuggling (of which he is, in fact, guilty). After a lengthy interrogation, he threatens to get his lawyer involved. One of the interrogators invokes the trope directly. Eddie inverts by admitting that he doesn't currently have a lawyer, but will be retaining one as soon as he's released.

* Semi-played straight in Discworld in general. In this case it's sort of a correlation =/= causation thing; the bad guys who ask for lawyers aren't asking for lawyers because they're bad guys, they're asking for lawyers because they have a tendency to be rich and think of themselves as above the law anyway, and they're usually asking for Mr. Slant, who is well known to be morally dubious at best anyway. Poor criminals have a tendency to not trust lawyers any more than Vimes does (of course, they also tend to be repeat offenders of much more minor crimes, with whom the Watch has an almost friendly relationship, and not the actual bad guys). Such as an Aesop can be gleaned from Discworld it seems to be that "if you're rich enough to afford a lawyer to begin with, you're that much more likely to be enough of a scumbag to abuse the privelige".

 

* Most crime dramas deliberately invoke this trope. The detectives will try to convince someone that as long as they talk freely and don't ask for a lawyer, they won't be suspect. The true motive, of course, is to get them to reveal their guilt or other pertinent information that a lawyer would keep them quiet about.

** [[Truth in Television]]: The police are allowed to lie to you in an interrogation as much as they want, and for obvious reasons the first lie they will always try and sell you is 'There's no need for you to get your lawyer involved, it would only make things worse for you'. The only lie they can't tell you is that you're not ''allowed'' to ask for a lawyer, because there was a Supreme Court decision specifically forbidding them to do that, but they will still lie epically, elaborately, and at length about 'sure, you ''can'' ask for a lawyer, but here's why you wouldn't ''want'' to'.

* There was an episode of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' where this was averted, sort of: the killer keeps insisting that he doesn't need a lawyer, but this isn't a ploy to appear innocent, it's because [[The Killer in Me|he doesn't realise he's guilty]].

* On ''[[NYPD Blue]]'', the detectives would regularly play good cop on a perp, saying he should confess and he'll get a lighter sentence, etc. They'd do practically anything to keep someone from calling his lawyer.

*** Of course, the dominatrix was a former lawyer, so...

* In the season 5 finale of ''[[Dexter]]'', the other characters (all police officers) treat Detective Quinn this way when he requests to speak with an attorney when it's likely that he might be implicated in a crime that he didn't actually commit.

* ''[[Without a Trace]]'' had an innocent man confess to a crime after hours of [[Perp Sweating]]; Viv suggested he might be innocent because he didn't ask for his lawyer during that whole time.

* Deliberately used as a red herring in one of the ''[[Eagle Eye Mysteries]]'' challenge cases where one of the suspects is uncooperative and demands a lawyer. If you accuse her of the crime, her careful explanation of innocence assumes that you did so primarily because of that reason.

** [[Exploited]] in "Personal Politics": the suspect asks to speak with his lawyer, but the detectives say that there's no need to get a lawyer involved, they just need him to explain his alibi. Wanting to appear helpful, he does so—and then the detectives immediately tear the alibi apart, having previously questioned the other people involved, and merely needing him to either confess or get caught in an obvious lie.

** In "All in the Family," the fact that a suspect not only got a lawyer, but got an ''expensive'' lawyer, provides a clue that he's guilty of more than the police knew about.

 

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', at least half of Elias Kelham's dialogue when you have him arrested consists of "I want to see my lawyer." The other half consists of "Come on, hit me. I dare you." On the other hand, informing that you are a Spectre, and therefore have the legal sanction to not only deny him access to a lawyer but also to torture or even kill him all you want, will (for obvious reasons) cause him to talk immediately. Either way, going into the interrogation you do actually immediately know that Kelham is a crime boss and that he's already ordered an assassination, so calling for the lawyer is not, itself, treated as a flashing sign that he's a badguy.

 

* In the United States, at least, if the police appear to think that you have committed a crime (and especially if they've actually arrested you), you should definitely not say anything to them except for asking to see a lawyer. [[You Have the Right To Remain Silent|"Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law,"]] no matter how innocuous you think it may be. Even saying that you're innocent<ref>"I didn't do anything wrong, so can I go now?"</ref> can be twisted against you.<ref>"Mr. Troper seemed uneasy, despite claiming he had nothing to hide, yet constantly asked to be released, as if he ''did'' have something to hide. After all, why would a seemingly innocent man be so nervous around police?"</ref> Note, however, that this isn't true in all countries. In the United Kingdom, for example, the suspect is told that [[You Do Not Have to Say Anything|he should not withhold any information that he will later rely on in court.]]

** And that's not getting into all the different ways that "acting like someone who is innocent" can translate into "showing no remorse" with the right prosecutor.