4 Things You Should Do After You’ve Been Arrested
So, you’ve just been arrested. It happens! What do you do next? Here are 4 things the Domingos Law Team believes you should do after getting arrested.
Stay Silent
- When you’re arrested, the police are required to read you your “Miranda rights” before asking you any questions. These are your Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent and refuse to answer questions or provide information that may incriminate you. You also have the right to an attorney, especially when the police are questioning you.
- Anything you say or do can be used against you in the court of law. This not only includes what you say to the police, but what you post on social media. It is not recommended to talk about your arrest on social media. This includes talking about the police and any other individual involved in your arrest. “Private” profiles are never truly private—a prosecutor can easily find incriminating information about you on social media, even when your profile is private. It’s crucial that you stay silent and don’t provide the police with any information that they can use in bringing further charges against you.
- If the police are asking you questions, you can ask them if you can speak with your attorney and to stop questioning you until your attorney is present.
Be Cooperative
- Being said, there are some questions that are appropriate to answer. When asked: “Can I see your identification?”, or “Do you have anything on you that I need to be concerned about?”, you should cooperate with the police. These are appropriate, administrative questions to be asked. These questions allow the police to do their job effectively. Also, it ensures the safety of you and the police.
- You should also be forth-coming about certain information. Let’s take the second question, “Do you have anything on you that I need to be concerned about?”, for example. If you were to withhold telling the police whether you had anything on your person and they wound up finding something incriminating after the fact, that could make things worse. Be upfront so that the police don’t have any reason to impose further charges against you.
Be Respectful, No Matter What
- Be respectful during your arrest. Police have a broad range of discretion in what charges to bring against you. From the moment you’re taken into custody, the police can change the severity of your charges (from a misdemeanor to a felony) and even add charges, all depending upon their interaction with you. Be as kind and polite as you can be, even when the police may not be.
Lawyer Up
- When you get arrested, you don’t have to go through it alone. That’s why it’s essential to hire an experienced criminal defense attorney to represent you. Your attorney will navigate you through the legal system and ease any concerns you may have. Good representation is important—it can be the difference between winning or losing your case.
If you want a lawyer that you can trust, call Attorney Bridgette M. Domingos. Attorney Domingos is dedicated to Criminal Defense. She provides quality, fierce representation to those often over prosecuted and under protected. At Domingos Law, we level the playing field by holding the system accountable—one client at a time.
