Why the right to a lawyer is so important

This is Joseph.

I was talking to Mark and this video came up. One of the reasons why having a lawyer is so important is that mere civilians cannot be expected to know the subtle nuances of the law. 

One of the eye-opening moments of this video, at least for me, was discussing the consequences of the police making a mistake. The example of a mistaken identification contradicting your alibi is exactly the sort of complication that one really, really wants a trained professional to navigate. 

Here is a more complicated example via Ken White:

Imagine this scenario, based on an actual situation:

A business associate calls you and says, "my dear business associate, the shit has hit the fan; Federal Agency X is investigating Project Y we did together. Two Agency X agents are interviewing people."

"Oh coitus," says you, or words to that effect, and terminate the conversation.

Later that day, two well-dressed and polite agents of Agency X visit you. Because you despise me and want me to weep and gnash my teeth, you consent to be interviewed. At some point, they ask you "have you talked about this investigation with anyone?"

"No," you say.

They smile.

At the end of the interview, it occurs to you to ask, "Hey, am I in trouble? Do I need a lawyer?"

The agents smirk. "No," they say. "I mean, unless you lied about talking to anyone about this investigation."

See, you've fallen into a false statement trap, which I've talked about before. The feds know that you've talked to somebody about their investigation. They were probably standing next to your friend when he made that call this morning. And now you've talked your way into a felony.

This is the sort of fact that will come up in discovery and a skilled lawyer will know about. You don't need to worry about a failure of recollection or the proper interpretation of a discussion. Innocent error could easily be an explanation for the scenario above, but it becomes a felony. 

Lawyers are an important part of criminal justice and right to competent counsel is extremely important. Here are some more examples of how this can go wrong. I am not a big fan of the sociopath one, but the rest are all great examples of how unprepared discussion can go quite wrong.