Understanding Communication with the Prosecutor
Will the prosecutor talk with you or with your attorney? Hi. My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa criminal attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family and criminal law for almost eight years now, and I want to help you make law easy by just talking a little bit about when and how the prosecutor should be communicating with you.
So the answer to the question is that it depends on whether you have an attorney. If you’ve hired counsel, then the prosecutor should not be speaking with you. If you’re a representative party, the prosecutor is obligated to speak with your legal counsel instead of talking with you directly.
The Importance of Legal Representation
There are a bunch of reasons for this, but one big one is that you have a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. If you’re having a conversation with the prosecutor, everything you say to that prosecutor can and will be used against you in a court of law. It’s part of the Miranda Rights that you hear read all the time on every crime drama on TV.
So if you have an attorney, you’re protected, because everything you talk about with your attorney is going to be protected by attorney-client confidentiality. So it doesn’t matter what you tell your attorney, it doesn’t matter if you tell your attorney, yeah, I slapped the crap out of him. It’s all confidential. None of it can be reported, but if you tell the prosecutor, yeah, I slapped the crap out of him, well, then you just confessed to the crime and your chances of negotiating anything are completely out the window.
How to Respond to Prosecutor’s Inquiries
So if you’re in a situation where you’ve hired counsel but a prosecutor is trying to speak with you, all you need to say is, I’m sorry, I’m not interested in discussing this. You can speak with my attorney. Give them your attorney’s contact information, make sure that they know how to get hold of them, and do not say anything else. 99 times out of 100, prosecutors’ going to recognize that, respect it, and back off.
But if you get someone who’s pushy, just stand your ground and refuse to answer any other questions. If you have questions about this, or if you’re in this situation where the prosecutor’s trying to push you or you’ve got an attorney that you don’t think is talking to the prosecutor the way they should, give me a call.
Schedule Your Initial Strategy Session Today
My name is Carl Birkhead, I’m a Tulsa felony attorney with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy. If you need guidance and a strategy to ensure your rights are protected, schedule a low-cost initial strategy session with me today. Call us at 918-879-1681. Thank you.
