When To Ask For Your Lawyer After Being Arrested

Welcome back to our YouTube channel, and thank you for joining me today. When should you ask for a lawyer after you’ve been arrested? Great question I have to answer for you today. Well, the first question and the first answer, I should say, is absolutely immediately. If you’re arrested or detained by the police, you have rights under Section 10(b) of the Charter. Basically, you have the right to retain and consult counsel without delay. That means a phone call right away. And the police upon arrest or detention should read you the right to counsel. If they don’t do that, you should ask for a lawyer. Ask, am I under arrest? Yes, okay, I want to speak to my lawyer. Now you need to shut up until you speak to that lawyer. The police are going to, you know, take you back to the police station. For example, they’re going to put you in the room. They’re going to call either a 1-800 number for duty counsel if you want duty counsel. If you have the name of a lawyer, you’re going to speak to that lawyer. Do not answer any questions in the meantime. You know the police, and by the way, the police have an obligation not to ask you any questions in the meantime, but they just might breach that obligation. You don’t know. Just plan to shut up.  The lawyer will get on the phone with you. They’ll explain some legal advice to you. They will tell you to exercise your right to silence, not to answer any questions whatsoever. So they’re going to tell you to be polite and cooperative, but just shut up and just keep saying, look, I’m exercising my right to silence. I’m not saying anything. The police will put you in a room. They might interrogate you for two hours trying to be your friend. Just say nothing. Don’t say a word during that whole time. Or just say, I’m not saying anything every five minutes till they give up. It’s very important you exercise this right immediately. 

Now, what if you don’t do that? Well, here’s the problem. You’re not asking for a lawyer maybe construed as the waiver of the rights of counsel. You said, Oh, I didn’t want a lawyer. Depending on the words you say, then you’re not a lawyer. You don’t really know what to say in that situation. So the police or the courts might find that it’s a waiver. You then go to a room and start answering questions. You may be completely innocent. You don’t want to answer questions if you’re innocent, guilty or somewhere in between, because it’s a stressful situation. You’re not going to remember anything that you you’re going to forget things. There’s going to be inconsistency. And then when you go to testify in your trial, it’s going to be all screwed up. You’re going to be confronted with a confronted with a statement that’s totally inconsistent, even though you may be truthfully and totally innocent, let alone incriminating yourself in that room. So it’s a very important fundamental right exercise it immediately shut up until you exercise it. Listen to the lawyer and then shut up in that interrogation room. Do not answer any questions to the police but be polite and cooperative. You know nice guy produce your ID and say nothing.