Steve Palmer gives you the whole website so you can ask a question

>> Steve Palmer: All right, Steve Palmer back. Guess what? If you recognize my outfit, it is because I wore it the same day I'm answering this question. Kathy asked a question, but it was really two parts of an unrelated question. So I'm going to answer the second half of that question right here at, uh, lawyertalkpodcast.com dot. Why did I give you the whole website? Because you too can go to my website and ask a question. It's really easy. There's a button you push and it sends me the question. And then, like magic, I show up here in the studio and I answer it. So lawyertalkpodcast.com dot check it out. There's all sorts of other great stuff on the website.

I've seen police suggest if you don't talk to them, they'll jail

Now to kathy's second question. Uh, and this is near and dear to my heart, I have been doing criminal defense work in my real life, uh, for the better part of 29 years, maybe more, uh, representing folks charged wrongfully and sometimes rightfully with criminal offenses. Uh, and I deal with this question all the Time Kathy asks. I see people hang themselves, not literally hang themselves when talking to the police. I've seen police suggest if you don't talk to them, they are going to throw you in jail. How do you meaning me, I think deal with the police. Well, here's the thing. Uh, if you just ask any criminal defense lawyer worth assault, he is going to say, don't talk to the police, don't make any statements. Yeah, but you would say they're going to think I'm guilty. Well, I know, but if they're asking you questions, uh, if they're, uh, zeroing in on you anyway, they already think you're guilty. Um, and beyond that, the damage you can do by trying to talk your way out of a situation is going to be far greater than anything, uh, that, uh, the police think. And now the second part of her question is, aren't they just gonna throw me in jail? Well, you know what? They might. They might. But think about it this way. So if you start talking to the police and you start making statements that are incriminating, and I'll give you a story or two here in a second where maybe you don't even think it's incriminating, but it is, uh, you're giving the police probable cause, you're giving them information, you're giving them stuff they will use to justify later arresting you and throwing you in jail. Now, can the police throw you in jail simply for not making any statements? Well, I would think theory know, unless there's some sort of probable cause, uh, that would let them do that anyway. I'll talk about probable cause in a different thing, but just, just understand that that means a good reason. Um, they can do it even if they don't have a good reason, because they're the ones with the handcuffs, they're the ones with the gun, they're the ones with the badge, they're the ones with all the authority. And we've all seen the videos of what happens when you don't comply with the police. So my advice is almost always this. Be professional, be courteous. Um, most of the Time, you can tell them your name. You can tell them who you are. You can even identify yourself, because they're going to figure that out anyway. Play games, don't get cute. But when they ask you what happened, when they ask you to talk about whatever they want you to talk about, politely say, I prefer not to make any statements until I talk to my lawyer. And guess what? We can always go back and supply information to the police. But I can't fix it. Once you have told them things, I can't go back and remove the information. You can't unring the bell. You can't put the proverbial toothpaste back in the tube. I'll tell you a quick story. I was driving to, uh, a workout one morning. Uh, it was really early, one of those drizzly, uh, mornings. Uh, and there was an elderly lady walking across the street. I was turning left. Everything was dark. She was wearing a black hat. She was wearing a black jacket. She was wearing black shoes, and she was carrying a black umbrella. And I didn't see her till the very last second as I was turning left. And I didn't hit her, I promise. But it startled her, and she fell down. I pulled over, waited on the police, and the police got, uh, there. And they said, all right, what happened? And I'm sitting there in my workout clothes and, you know, waiting and probably texting people or doing whatever. And, uh, guess what I did. I told him what happened, and I knew better. I knew I shouldn't do it. I started to say, look, I'm not going to make any statements. He's like, oh, come on. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they talked me into it. Now, if this would have been something really serious or if I knew the woman was seriously hurt and I'd seriously screwed up, I probably would have stuck, uh, by my guns. But the point of telling that story is it's really easy to get talked into making statements to the police. They are good at it. They do it every day. They are trained to do it. There's something called the reed technique that is probably a whole other topic. But they are trained to get you to talk. They make you feel like you're somehow hurting yourself. If you don't talk, you're somehow, uh, screwing with the system. If you don't talk, they make you feel guilty. They have all this sort of soft coercion. Don't fall into the trap if you got any problems, any questions, or you feel like you're getting drawn in. The more they want you to talk, the more you know you shouldn't. Uh, and then always, you can call me Steve Palmer, uh, at Palmer, uh, legal defense. I'm more than happy to help you. Uh, or just check out the Lawyer Talk episodes. Lots of great, uh, thoughts, questions, advice there to Steve Palmer. Lawyer Talk, off the record, on the air, answering questions, at least until now.