What to Do After You’re Arrested

Austin Criminal Defense Attorney Explains Your Legal Rights

Video Transcript:

Samuel Bassett:
When a person who's been arrested speaks, those statements are almost always usable as evidence in their trial.

Rob Rosenthal:
If you're arrested or indicted, do you know what to do next? Well, we're gonna find out because we're going to Ask the Lawyer. Hi again, everybody. I'm Rob Rosenthal with AskTheLawyers.com, and my guest today is Austin attorney Samuel Bassett. Sam, thank you for making some time. It's good to see you again today.

Samuel Bassett:
You're welcome. Good to see you again as well.

Rob Rosenthal:
So let's start at the beginning. Someone's has been arrested or they're indicted, what do they need to know? Shat are some of the basic things they need to know about their legal rights in that situation?

Samuel Bassett:
Well, the first thing is an arrest. If an arrest occurs for you or a loved one, the important thing is to contact an attorney with criminal law experience and have that attorney give you some information on how to get the person out of jail and how to deal with the first steps. The first steps are important because you hate to have a loved one or you hate to be in jail, but the longer game is actually more important. How is the case gonna be handled? What will happen after you're out of jail?

Rob Rosenthal:
I'm gonna back up just a little bit. So those first steps, it seems like in the news these days, we see a lot of stories about people's rights, not maybe their legal rights in the case of an arrest, maybe not being respected. Is that something you see very often in your practice?

Samuel Bassett:
Well, it happens, and I think there's substantial evidence to say it happens disproportionately perhaps to minorities and lower income earning type of people. I don't know why that is, but I think the evidence is overwhelming that that is happening more often in less affluent areas than in more effluent areas, and I think that's no secret in the criminal justice system. On the other hand, a qualified legal professional who can help you through that early phase of the process doesn't need to cost a ton of money, but it is an important step to get someone involved who has experience with the system.

Rob Rosenthal:
So we see in the movies and on TV, "You get one phone call." What is that process like? How does someone begin the process of finding a qualified criminal defense attorney?

Samuel Bassett:
Well, the jail systems are all very different. It depends on the locality and what jail you're in. Some jails have ready access to phones, some of them don't give you access to phones very often. The most important thing I think is if you have an outside contact to work on finding the right person for you, that's an ideal scenario. If you call up a lawyer out of the phone bookor off a website, so to speak, sometimes that lawyer is the right fit and sometimes it's not, but if you have a person on the outside, a loved one or another person who can do a little research and maybe get some personal referrals, that's really the ideal way to handle it.

Rob Rosenthal:
So that was gonna be another question. How do you know if you're picking the right criminal defense attorney, Sam?

Samuel Bassett:
Well, you know, lawyers, like everybody else have jumped on the internet marketing bandwagon, and so just because a lawyer's name comes up first in a Google search, that doesn't necessarily mean that that's the best lawyer. He or she may be the best marketer, but that doesn't always translate to being the best lawyer. I would do a little in-depth research and I would see personal referrals from lawyers you know, or people who have been through these experiences with loved ones, and find out who has had good experiences and who has not.

Rob Rosenthal
And I'm guessing as with anything, experience matters.

Samuel Bassett:
Yes, experience is really a big factor in these situations, for two reasons. One is an experienced lawyer, hopefully one you find has been through trials and has had jury trials and fought the good fight in the courtroom. Not only that, a good lawyer with a good reputation will have good relationships, not just with the court personnel but even with law enforcement and other attorneys involved in the case: prosecutors and the political appointees that supervise the prosecutors. Aometimes all of those things combined can make a big difference and it seems almost always that experience, at least for 10 years or so, to me would be a bellweather issue.

I would think having some knowledge and experience with judges and the system would be helpful too.

Samuel Bassett:
Yes, absolutely.

So what about a public defender? Explain that a little bit to me. When is a public defender involved and what might be a drawback to that?

Samuel Bassett:
In order to get a public defender, you have to sign an affidavit stating that your income falls below poverty level guidelines. In some instances, they will point a public defender for somebody even if they're above those guidelines, but essentially counties vary on how they handle a public appointed attorney. Some counties have a public defender's office, which has a staff of attorneys paid by the government and supervised by a supervising public defender to handle cases for indigent people, for people who fall below the poverty guidelines. But many counties, and I think actually most counties in Texas that maybe aren't so populous, have a little more random assignment of court-appointed lawyers for indigent defendants, and those are the systems that I think you have to be fearful of, because oftentimes, there's just random appointments of lawyers who may not have much experience and certainly aren't getting paid very much to handle your case. And so if you could possibly afford an attorney, my advice is, you always wanna hire an attorney if you possibly can.

And as always the advice, I'm assuming Sam is to get a qualified defense attorney on your side as quickly as possible, is it the kind of situation, do people really need to be careful about what they might say before their attorney gets involved?

Samuel Bassett:
Absolutely, I think you have to be very careful. When a person who's been arrested speaks, those statements are almost always usable as evidence in their trial, even if it's an unintended statement or a comment. A lot of times, officers today, wear body cams. Almost everything you do in the police car and during the arresting process is gonna be captured on audio, so you have to be very careful about what you say and be polite and respectful.

Lots of great information, very helpful as usual, Sam. Thank you for making some time answering our questions today.

Samuel Bassett:
Thank you.

That's gonna do it for this episode of Ask The Lawyer. My guest has been Austin attorney Samuel Bassett. If want the very best information or you'd like to be able to choose a lawyer that lawyers choose, make sure to go to AskTheLawyers.com. Also please take a sec to subscribe by clicking the button below so you'll know about future episodes of Ask The Lawyer. Thanks for watching. I'm Rob Rosenthal from AskTheLawyers.com.

Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements