When you say "I won't answer any questions until I talk to my lawyer," the cops' next move isn't to give you a phone to call "your lawyer." It's that questioning then must stop until you either hire a lawyer, or one is appointed to you. The main impact is to end the questioning.
Again: the psychology of “well talking to *someone* is better than nothing…” would be lessened with an actual understanding of how you eventually end up in a room with someone you can trust. And I’m not sure I’d trust a bozo I picked at random on the worst day of my life.
For sure! I guess I'm trying to say they're two unrelated problems. Step 1 is "No answers before talking to a lawyer." Step 2 is finding a lawyer. But regardless of whether you get Barry Zuckerkorn or Ben Matlock in step 2, you're gonna be in a better position if you handle step 1 right.
I don’t think we’re disagreeing. I like to think “remain silent” has been drilled into me enough to follow the advice…but it’s easy to think anyone not following it is an idiot until you really think through the psychology of the process. Which is presumably by design.
(This is worsened by the reality that I’ve known several very smart and hardworking people incredibly frustrated that they ended up represented (in minor matters) by obviously not-great lawyers. Frustrated because the smart move is *still* to defer to slightly-lazy slightly-dimwitted counsel.)