Little Boy Bluebook

Hey, kids. Wanna try some doc review?

[noseforahtwo]

As a chick married to an ex-cop, I say this all the time to people close to me, but it bears repeating here: No cop is your friend after you’ve been detained.

Get rear ended by a drunk at a red light? That cop will direct traffic around your vehicle, document the accident, sure. Call animal control on your piece of shit neighbor? You’ve got a pretty good chance the officer who shows up helps out in a meaningful way.

But after you’ve been arrested, when a police officer says, “Just be honest with me and I’ll do the same.” or the old “Help me and I’ll help you.” Politely ask for a lawyer. Shake your head. Ignore them. Pretend you’re Hollywood royalty being asked for a selfie. “ …mmmm… Sorry, but no.”

Keep your mouth shut. Don’t do their work for them. Wait for a lawyer.

[kedreeva]

I worked as a police dispatcher for a year and a half, and I’d agree with this. My cops were generally nice people (and I say this having been on the wrong end of their sirens twice, once before and once after being hired), and they often helped in good ways… on the street. Not so much in the station. Generally speaking (and I know this is oversimplification and is worse in a lot of places but), it went like this:

On the street, you were considered as a person/citizen they have sworn to protect who may have made a mistake or done something wrong.

Once you were in the station, you were considered as a criminal. In the station you are the only one on your side.

Stay safe.

[thebaconsandwichofregret]

TV and film has you thinking that only guilty people ask for a lawyer. This is not true. The law is complex and difficult and confusing and if you’re being questioned by the police you’re not going to be in your best state of mind. A lawyer is your basic civil right and you should exercise that right. Keep silent, ask for a lawyer, take your legal advice.

Guilty people don’t ask for a lawyer, smart people do.

[noseforahtwo]

“Guilty people don’t ask for a lawyer, smart people do.”

[emmeetslawschool]

NEVER TALK TO COPS WITHOUT AN ATTORNEY PRESENCE EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO HIDE - - your local friendly attorney

[littleboybluebook]

If you are arrested by the police, answer every question with “I invoke my right to silence and I want an attorney.”

Now. Here’s the other thing: protect your life first. The above is about protecting your constitutional rights, and that’s great and all, but you are in their custody and too many people are dying in their custody. So if forgoing your rights is going to get you back out that precinct door, you are in the best position to know that and to make that choice. Let us lawyers work out the after effects on your case. 

It’s a shitty choice to have to make, and I’m sorry the system is like this. But we want you alive to fight that unjust system.

[littleboybluebook]

You know an opinion is going to be a whirlwind ride when it starts out with the twelfth and final labor of Heracles.

[trinittysantos]

why don’t wizards on trial have the option to consent to veritaserum? like I get that it’s illegal to force it on someone and that’s cool, but why not have it as an option for people who are testifying that they’re innocent? like wouldn’t that just make sense? you have a potion that can prove 100% if someone’s telling the truth, but instead of using it you just lock innocent people in soul-sucking prison forever? would it just make wizard court tv too boring if half the cases were solved in like two minutes?

[noraabunn]

For serious tho

[iadoremusicals]

For Sirius tho…

[littleboybluebook]

<law nerd> 

The problem isn’t the people that choose to use it. The problem is that there will be people that don’t choose to. We are allowed to testify and have a right not to incriminate ourselves, and that’s great, but what it means in practice is that if you don’t testify, then the people deciding your fate assume you must be guilty. Because why wouldn’t an innocent person testify/use a truth serum? 

I’m not all up on wizard criminal justice and procedure, but in the American muggle world, there are any number of reasons that you might not testify. The first one being that it’s actually the prosecution’s job to prove you are guilty and not for you to prove you are innocent. You don’t need to risk that they can frame their questions or your answers to make you look guilty (which is exactly what they are trained and trying to do). 

Let me go full law nerd and spin out a hypo: You and a bunch of friends break into a store and steal a bunch of shit. You get out of the store first and back to the meeting point. After you leave, the security guard shows up and shit happens and she ends up dead. You get caught for whatever reason and don’t know who killed the woman (so you can’t make a deal). You don’t want to use truth serum here, because you were there, but you didn’t kill the woman, but being there isn’t good for your “I didn’t kill her” defense and also for not incriminating yourself for another (but lesser) crime. Because you don’t use the serum, the judge/jury think you are guilty and you go away to that soul-sucking prison as an innocent person.

I’m not saying no to the serum. It’s just that these are those kinds of questions where there aren’t perfect answers. whatever answer society chooses is going to end up with someone being hurt by the way the system works. We choose what values we want to see as the foundation of the system and then create stopgaps to (hopefully) help ease the harshness of the rules we decided on. But we do so knowing that someone is going to fall into those gaps no matter how hard we try.

</law nerd>

[lawblrgh]

Private lawyers meeting government lawyers.

[sentientdustbunny]

I’m crying this is too real

[jkateel-archive]

I needed this today.

[littleboybluebook]

[iraffiruse]

[littleboybluebook]

Justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.

R v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy

[littleboybluebook]

Q: What's the one thing that never works when it's fixed?

A: A jury.

[littleboybluebook]

Why I love acronyms

“Plaintiff’s causes of action in the SAC...”

[littleboybluebook]

I was going to tag this #thanksscalia, but the Pastafarians are not an Abrahamic religion so it's a no go.

[littleboybluebook]

Me: *looks at the word "witness"*

My Brain: No. That can't be right. That's not even English.

Me: ...

My Brain: What?

[littleboybluebook]

Lawyers occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."

Winston Churchill

mod J got a new lawyer calendar thing, so she’s going to share frequent quotes/tidbits about lawyers from now on.

[allhumorposts]

Teachers who call on random people are the absolute scariest beings in the universe

[littleboybluebook]

Do. Not. Go. To. Law. School.

[littleboybluebook]

The Fourteenth amendment is the gateway drug of individual rights.

Friend B being hip to the jam. (via littleboybluebook)

Happy human rights day everyone!

[littleboybluebook]

when you have a REALLY good story but also an ethical duty not to tell it

[learninglegaleeze]

Professor: The Fifth Circuit is a lot like Charlie Brown. The only difference is whenever the Fifth Circuit goes to kick the football, Lucy doesn’t move it. The Fifth Circuit misses the ball all by itself.