So You Got Arrested

THC Law Update and 10 Things That Make Your Case Worse

• BRCK Criminal Defense Attorneys

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A criminal charge can turn your life upside down, but the attorneys at BRCK  Criminal Defense are here to help. This week on "So You Got Arrested," hosts Scott and Steve break down the top 10 things people do to make their cases worse.

Key Takeaways

The hosts delve into critical missteps people make, from the moment of an arrest to after they've bonded out. They cover:

  • Silence is Golden 🤐: Why trying to talk your way out of a DWI or other charge is a terrible idea and how your words can be used as evidence against you.
  • Don't Give Consent 🚫: You have the right to say no when an officer asks to search your vehicle, home, or phone. This episode explains what to do when police threaten to call in drug-sniffing dogs.
  • The Big Mistake 🏃: Learn how evading arrest, even with no contraband or warrants, can lead to serious felony charges.
  • Digital Dangers 📱: Your social media, texts, and photos can become evidence. The hosts share how bragging online or deleting information can incriminate you.
  • Don't Make a Bad Situation Worse 🤦: The hosts explain how picking up a new charge while on bond or probation can jeopardize your entire case.

Join Scott and Steve as they share their top 10 list of mistakes and provide practical advice on how to navigate the Texas justice system. Don't make your attorney's job harder than it has to be—listen now to make the smart moves that could change everything.

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Speaker 1:

The Texas justice system is messy, so let's break it down. You're listening to so you got arrested the podcast that tells you what really happens after an arrest hosted by brick criminal defense attorneys. We talk to the people who've lived it, worked in it and been shaped by it, whether you're facing charges or just want to understand your rights, your options and the smart moves that could change everything, we've got your back.

Speaker 2:

So, scott, we're into September. September brings about some good things. It brings about Labor Day holiday, the start of the college football season Unfortunately, my longhorns didn't do too well this past Saturday, yeah well, they'll turn around and the start of the NFL season. But September 1st also brings a whole new set of laws, and so we have been getting some questions to our email, and I thank everyone for sending us your questions. You can email us at justarrestedpodcast at gmailcom, and we got an email asking about the new THC laws that are in effect. So I know there was. It was in the news that Texas was trying to ban these THC products and there was an issue as to whether they were going to address it during the special session. It did not get addressed. So THC products as they're sold in these stores are technically still legal here in Texas, with the exception of one thing, and that one thing are the vape pens. The vape pens, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Which I don't understand how they did that, that kind of snuck up on us.

Speaker 2:

Right, absolutely. So it's funny the way that that law works because the vape pens that contain any amount of THC are now illegal. But it's a funny law because the way that that law works is it is illegal to distribute or market the vape pens. It's not illegal to be in possession, which is a little odd. But this could have an effect on people who work at these vape shops, because if you're caught selling, distributing, marketing these products, it's a class A misdemeanor which could result in a year of confinement and up to a $4,000 fine. So if you find yourself in trouble for that, please give us a call at Brick Criminal Defense at 210-874-5080. But, scott, today I wanted to talk about things that people do that make their cases worse.

Speaker 3:

We got our top 10 list of things not to do when you've been arrested. Folks, Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and so the number one thing on my list. I'm a huge fan of Better Call Saul, and there's this moment in Better Call Saul where he's coming in to meet with a client by the name of Badger and Badger's meeting with an undercover police officer and he, you know, is talking to his client and he says hey, I'm just here to see if you said anything stupid and by anything stupid I mean anything at all. Exactly right, and so one of the things you can do to make your case worse is trying to talk your way out of it. I mean, what's your experience with that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so. So, unless a lot of people who pick up criminal cases are DWIs and minor offenses, family violence cases and generally when you're worked up about it. So if you're drunk, everybody who's drunk always thinks they're fine, right, and so they think they're going to talk to. When the officer hears how sober they sound, they're going to immediately realize they're not driving while drunk. But the problem is, of course, they do not sound sober at all, and who is the best judge of whether someone's intoxicated or not? Not the person who's been drinking.

Speaker 2:

So the person who's been drinking, so the person saying, oh, I've just had a couple thinking they're going to talk their way out of it, that's not going to it doesn't work and plus.

Speaker 3:

So you and I sit there afterwards and we watch the body cam of these and clearly that's not who they usually are, because one of the things you have to prove in a DWI is loss of normal use of mental or physical faculties, and when they're talking it's clear to everybody there that's not how they normally are. Okay, so it's all used as evidence against you and that you're not making sense when you're saying stuff.

Speaker 2:

Right, well, and you were a longtime prosecutor. Did you ever see a situation where somebody said, hey, I just had a couple. And the officer said a couple, oh, that's good, you can go on your way.

Speaker 3:

Never, never, never. And, by the way, they always say two. Every single person who's pulled over for DDI. Nobody just says one, nobody says five, nobody says four. It's always two or a couple and we joke about it. We joke about it like they're always going to say two, the first one and the last one. Yeah, those are the ones that they're going to mention. We kind of admire the people on a DDI when prosecutors who actually say no, I had four, I've had a dozen.

Speaker 2:

The second big thing that comes up, that can make cases much more complicated, is agreeing to allow that officer to search your phone, to search your car, to search your house. Keep in mind you do not have to agree to these things. You have a right to privacy. You can tell the officer no, you're not going to search my vehicle, you're not going to search my house, you're not going to search my phone. I mean, what are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 3:

And because it sounds self-explanatory, right, don't agree to let people search stuff, okay. Your thoughts on that? Because it sounds self-explanatory, right, don't agree to let people search stuff, okay. But here's how they do it. They pull you over that you're suspected of having drugs in the car, say you left a place that they're monitoring because it's a known drug dealer in this apartment complex, okay. And they say do you mind if I search the car? And you say, no, no, I don't want you to search my car, okay. And then they say, okay, well, we're going to bring the drug dogs. It may take us about 30 minutes, so you sure you want to wait that long. And then everybody's like well, I don't want to wait 30 minutes, go ahead and search my vehicle. Let me let me just be clear. The case law says that if they make you wait for a long time while they're getting the drug dog, we're going to be able to get that stuff thrown out, right, okay, but go ahead. Tell us what's your thoughts about all that?

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, you know, yeah, that's exactly right. And the thing that I've never understood is I've seen plenty of cases where people know they have contraband in the vehicle but, for whatever reason, despite that, they say no, no, no, go ahead and search. Or you know, they're going to bank on the fact that they're going to say well, I didn't know, that was in there, which never works no-transcript.

Speaker 3:

Know they're on call 24 seven, but that it takes a long time, Right, and so what the what the courts have looked at is is is a reasonable amount of time they make you wait, and what we kind of know is that if they're making you wait 30 minutes, most courts are going to consider that unreasonable.

Speaker 2:

And I've always told clients like, look, I wouldn't want an officer just going through my phone. I mean, I have pictures of my kids on there. I have personal information, credit card information Not to say they're going to do anything with it, but we have a lot of our private lives on our phones. Embarrassing texts you sent to your wife, there you go. Whatever the case may be right, so there's nothing wrong with saying no, that's my private information, you cannot go through it. If you want to go through it, get a search warrant. That raises another issue. The third thing that we see is people doing something stupid that gives an officer probable cause, either reasonable suspicion to pull you over or probable cause for a search.

Speaker 3:

Or causes you to be arrested for a crime. So it's interesting, because you were just talking about people know if they have contraband in their car just a second ago. Well, we have a guy the nicest guy, he's been on probation for a while and been doing well and for whatever reason driving. The police lit him up, um, but he had no active warrants, he had nothing in his car, but he fled Right and so he led the police on a chase. Then he bailed out of the car and ran too. So he's got two new charges evading a vehicle and evading on foot. And guess what, when you're on probation and you pick up new charges, it's going to take a Herculean effort for us to continue him on probation Right, and he knows that. And so I'm finally like so you didn't have anything in your car, you didn't have any warrants, why did you run Exactly? He just panicked.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I. I've seen cases where people you know know they have contraband in their car but they're driving around with a broken tail light. They're broken, they're driving around with the license plate light not working and you know, and my thought is you're making the officer's job easy and you're making it far more likely that you're going to end up being arrested and going to jail.

Speaker 3:

Well, it's even worse than that. We get a lot of people who are driving with expired registration and no license, Right you know. And so don't take drugs in your car if you don't have everything up to date.

Speaker 2:

Right. Or the situation where you know somebody is doing something they shouldn't be doing and right before they get pulled over they've smoked out in their vehicle. So the officer pulls up and they roll down that window and it's like a Snoop Dogg video with the smoke coming out, and then they have contraband in there and it's like you know, I mean, look, I'm happy to represent, you know everyone, and I'm happy for people to pay us to do this job, but you know, people do need to be a little bit smarter to try to keep themselves out of trouble.

Speaker 3:

And a little bit smarter, gets to our next item. Sometimes let's not talk so much.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly right, yeah, and so I know. In this day and age, it's common to want to share everything with your friends or your social media followers, but I can't tell you the number of times where people the evidence on their case is stuff that they've generated, either through a text to their friends bragging about what they're doing, or through social media posts or even pictures posing with some kind of contraband. You know something that they shouldn't have.

Speaker 3:

Almost every case that we've had recently, in the last year or so, it involves something involving gun charges or shooting. There's pictures that the police have gotten off somebody's phone or off Instagram or off Snapchat that somebody saved of that person with guns. Right, right, okay, that doesn't help us.

Speaker 2:

And it and it makes it tough on your attorney when they go into court and they're saying, hey, my client you know is a good guy, my client you know was not involved in this, whatever the case may be and then the prosecutor opens up their file and there's a huge eight by 10 snapshot.

Speaker 3:

You know the guy on Instagram posing with a gun or something like that, and it's usually a couple guns and a blunt in their mouth all at the same time and they're like bad guns, like assault rifle guns, right right, right, yeah, yeah, and it's hard to to to go from there to.

Speaker 2:

Oh well, you know, my guy is normally a very good guy, other than his social media presence, although I guess maybe you could go the route like 50 Cent did a while back when he posed with all the money when he owed money in bankruptcy and said, well, this is all fake, this is part of my image. That's a little bit different. He's a celebrity. I don't know that most of our clients are going to be able to make that argument.

Speaker 3:

I've seen people as a prosecutor try to make that argument that that's not really their gun. I'm like, okay, but we're not saying it's your gun, we're saying you're holding it and you've threatened to shoot the school. Yeah exactly, we get a bunch of those.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, yeah. So I mean, just be careful with that stuff, stuff that you're keeping on your phone. And that also goes back to the issue of you shouldn't be allowing people just to search your phone without a search warrant. There's another issue that comes up, a fifth point that you know can complicate your case, and that's a situation where you already have a case pending and while that case is pending and you have your lawyer and your lawyer's fighting for you and you're attending court, you go out, you do something stupid, you pick up another case, yeah, and so what we tell all our clients is so.

Speaker 3:

We've had clients who intoxicants, ag robberies, things like that, and were able to get the bond reduced and get them out. And then it takes a while before the DA. I have a guy with an intoxicant. That took a year and a half before they indicted him and we could. I could have sat there and made a fuss and like, oh, go ahead and hurry up and indict this, and then that wouldn't have done me any good. But what, what happens now is I'm able to go to the judge and say, look how good this guy has been doing for the year and a half while he's been on GPS, while he's had the ignition interlock. He's been doing everything.

Speaker 3:

So the DA cannot come in here and say this guy is a danger and not going to do well on probation. It's undisputed of the year and a half where he's been on pretrial conditions. We know he's going to do well on probation. So the only thing they can argue is we want to punish this guy. The opposite is we get somebody out and say, help me out, help me to do a good job for you by not picking up new crimes. And then all of a sudden, they're in trouble again.

Speaker 2:

Right, and it doesn't even have to be a major crime. I mean, there are some crimes like public intoxication, which ordinarily you know not ordinarily, but it is it's a classy misdemeanor, meaning the only thing that you're going to do is pay a fine on that, maybe spend the night in the drunk tank. But if you currently have a felony DWI pending and you pick up one of those public intoxication cases, it's just going to make your case that much worse.

Speaker 3:

And if we end up having to go to trial on it because the offer is the only thing they offer us is 15 years in prison. They're going to beat us over the head with that, Like he knew that he was looking at time and he was out drinking afterwards.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, After this guy is already in trouble, after he's already out on bond, after the case is already pending, he continued to drink drink in a public place, you know, got arrested for a new offense.

Speaker 3:

So he, so he clearly doesn't care about the consequences of his actions.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it makes it far more difficult to defend you and it makes it far more likely that a judge or a jury is going to take a look at that and say, hey, this is not a good person for probation, because while they were out on pretrial conditions, they continued to do things they weren't supposed to do and continue to get arrested. How likely are they to follow probation conditions?

Speaker 3:

That's right, so you can. You can make your attorney's job easy or you can make your attorney's job hard. It's up to you.

Speaker 2:

That's absolutely right, yeah, and we have the rest of our 10 that we'll get to after this break Again. This is so you got arrested from Brick Criminal Defense.

Speaker 4:

The attorneys of Brick Criminal Defense have helped over 5000 clients move on with their lives. When an arrest or accusation turns your life upside down, we have the knowledge, experience and integrity to get your life back on track. Traditional legal ethics, modern legal tactics the best defense possible to get you through the criminal justice system. Search Brick Criminal Defense to see our reviews and find out why so many of our clients have trusted us to fight for them. Brick Criminal Defense helping our clients move on with their lives.

Speaker 2:

And so we get back to our list of 10 things that you can do to make your case worse. Number six we hit on this a little bit, but it's kind of memorializing these dumb things that you've done. We talked about taking pictures. You know the other thing. That's pretty big. There are things like Snapchat and TikTok, you know. So we have everybody who wants to be Internet famous and so a lot of times are recording videos of themselves doing these stupid things that you know are just going to get them in trouble down the road.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I am not. I'm not known for knowing my social media stuff. I'm not on Instagram. You're not a TikToker. I'm not. I'm not on any of that. You're on YouTube. I am on YouTube and I'm on Facebook. Yeah, there you go, the old people's social media. But the thing is so I know my daughter and the younger generation tells me oh well, snapchat's not saved, and so I believe that to be true. But what happens is somebody takes a screenshot of the Snapchat and then they send it to other people. So don't assume that just because it's on Snapchat, people aren't going to be able to get it.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no. I've had Snapchat come up in cases that I've been on before. I've had clients who have been surprised that their Snapchat was still around, and it's absolutely right. Somebody else has recorded it, taken a screenshot, done whatever, and then, of course, shared it with everybody else. You it ends up in that prosecutor's file to be used against you, right?

Speaker 3:

And it hurts, absolutely, absolutely, not not good.

Speaker 2:

Well, because it makes it seem. It's hard to argue that you know if somebody did something that they're remorseful if they were bragging about it on social media.

Speaker 3:

There was that murder case that we weren't handling just a little while ago. He was a rap star, oh right. He rapped that murder case that we weren't handling just a little while ago. He was a rap star, oh right, about the murder that happened and he did another murder in another.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely yeah. That can be difficult to say. Hey, my client's very remorseful about this, aside from the fact that he was bragging about it wrote a song about it to his friends on social media.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, um, number seven, this is a big one, um. So a lot of times we have circumstances where somebody is maybe about to get in trouble for something small. Let's take an example of they got a little marijuana on them, right? So they're getting pulled over by police. They've got a little marijuana on them and to try to get away with it, they tossed the bag of marijuana outside the car. Now, what's the charge when that happens?

Speaker 3:

So I'm not a fan. I used to reject those as a prosecutor. Some of those tampering with evidence, charges, right.

Speaker 2:

Which is a felony.

Speaker 3:

Right, it's a felony. So you've turned. What's a misdemeanor? That's not a big deal.

Speaker 2:

A misdemeanor that you would. Worst case scenario you get probation.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and we're probably going to be able to get you pretrial diversion if you have no criminal history Right. But now you've turned it into a felony. And then of course you get the ones where they're trying to swallow it and then the officer is trying to like force their jaws open Right, it turns into a Donnybrook. I know the generation doesn't use the term Donnybrook anymore, Right, Right.

Speaker 2:

But I'm assuming Donnybrook was like a 1960s pop star. Yes, yes.

Speaker 3:

So so but but yeah, and so they get you for tampering with evidence, which is a felony.

Speaker 2:

Right and so, and it's felony that carries range punishment of two to 10 years in prison.

Speaker 3:

Right and so it doesn't make sense. Not to mention, you know, when I was a kid I had a friend of mine that was pulled over and ate it was not just marijuana, he had like a bunch of pills that were illegal. He swallowed them all, had a heart attack and died, right. So even if it's a felony folks most of those felonies, felony drug cases you're still going to get probation on. It's not worth dying because you want to swallow the drugs, because you don't want to have to go to court and deal with a felony probation, right, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you know, and it's just a lot of people don't know this, and a lot of times I'm representing young people who have these little marijuana cases and they didn't know that by tossing that baggie of marijuana which keep in mind, when an officer's behind you they're running dash cam right, so they're recording everything that's happening in the vehicle that's in front of them and so you clearly see the bag fly out the window and then the officer will go pick it up and then you know they end up being charged with that felony. And not every prosecutor is as reasonable as my partner here. A lot of them will indict that case. And now all of a sudden you know you're looking at two to 10 years in prison because you were trying to avoid that misdemeanor charge.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, it just doesn't make sense, but this is what happens when you're in tense situations. Sometimes you make very, very bad decisions, yeah, and so, if you're not sure what to do, don't just don't do anything.

Speaker 2:

That's right and you know, and it even extends to things like your personal devices. I've had cases where people are under investigation and they want to start deleting things off their phone or they want to start, you know, deleting things from the iPad. I always tell them don't touch anything, because a lot of times you end up the case for the tampering with evidence ends up being much worse or a much more solid case. I've had plenty of cases where people beat the underlying offense, but what they didn't beat was the tampering with evidence, because they were deleting stuff.

Speaker 3:

Right yeah, it's always difficult and just use I would say use your common sense. But clearly a lot of people don't have common sense to utilize Right Right, or they're nervous or scared.

Speaker 2:

Don't have common sense to utilize Right right, or they're nervous, they're scared, they're doing whatever they can.

Speaker 3:

Right, and so if you're not sure what to do, just don't do anything, and we'll get to the last thing in a little bit what you need to do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, don't do anything, let your lawyer take care of it. Yes, I know number eight. This is a big one for my partner here. Mr Simpson, yes, it is.

Speaker 3:

This applies to everything in life. Don't be a jerk. Okay, it's not just about like. So if you're a jerk with a police officer, the prosecutor is going to look at that and they're going to want to back up the police officer who you've told all kinds of ugly things to Like. When I get it like and it's being a jerk when you say well, I know the mayor Right.

Speaker 2:

We've had, unless you're the governor and you say well, I think you need to, let us go on our way, governor Perry.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes, yes, that was wonderful. But so, so we've had prosecutors who sat there and tried to like, pull the I'm a prosecutor thing. When they were pulled over OK, yes, we have, and they get in trouble at work. And do you think? Do you think the police officer would feel like, oh, you're a prosecutor, I'm going to let you go. Or like, oh good, I get to arrest a prosecutor.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm the opposite. I do not want an officer to know I'm a criminal defense attorney. During the stop, of course, I've had officers ask me you know what are you doing or where are you coming from? And I'm coming from court. And you know, I try not to mention, hey, I'm a criminal defense attorney, because I do worry that they would get, you know, a little excited about the fact that I'm about to pop this guy.

Speaker 3:

So you get to tell their buddies I arrested an attorney today and everybody buys them around. There you go, that guy that had you on the stand last month yeah, I just I just arrested him.

Speaker 2:

So, uh, yeah, absolutely, and you know, and it it can make a difference. So I've had cases I'm not saying this is every case, but I've had cases where, like during a dwi, if somebody you know again, I'm not saying you have to agree to all the searches and agree to do all the tests, but if somebody was at least cordial and not screaming and yelling at the officer, where the officer may not show up at the ALR hearing, which affects whether or not you get to keep your driver's license. So those things can make a difference. And I was thinking about this, you know, just the other day, because as I've gotten older and as I've handled some of these cases, you know I get pulled over by police because I like to drive a little fast, going wherever I'm going.

Speaker 2:

And I would say over the last three months I've probably received three warnings from police officers where they had the option. You know where I was going 15 miles over and I'm just polite the entire time. And, yes, I understand, you know, and my apologies, you know, whatever it is. And, ok, they give me the warning and they let me go. Now I know that part of that is because I'm a little older. When I was a young guy with long hair and a goatee, I always felt like officers would give me a bunch of crap. So sometimes they're just going to do that based on how you look. But it does make a difference and it may make a difference in you getting a warning, you not getting your vehicle searched If you are at least polite and you don't go out of your way to antagonize the officer.

Speaker 3:

I didn't know you sped this much. We got to stop calling you Grandpa Steve, behind your back. I didn't realize you were a lead foot?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, I'm always at least 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. Okay, so now number nine. This goes to after the point where you've been arrested. Okay, so let's say that the officer's arrested you, they've taken you to the jail, you're now in front of that magistrate and the magistrate is setting your bail, but they're also doing your bond conditions.

Speaker 3:

Right. And so a couple episodes ago we had somebody from the magistrate's office talk about that kind of thing and we see all kinds of people afterwards who have no idea what the conditions of their bond are. Right, okay, and that's important. Yeah, it's kind of important because, well, where it comes up a lot is we have people on the family violence cases where they're told no contact with the person who they were accused of assaulting, who happens to be their significant other, right, ok, and so they get all. They get all kinds of things. I had a guy that just a couple of months ago he was under the impression that he could have contact after 30 days because there was an emergency protective order that was done, but the conditions of bond said no contact at all. So just because the emergency protective order is done didn't nullify the bond condition to have no contact at all. So sure enough, he's pulled over 60 days later for speeding the gals in the car with him. He picks up a new case for violation conditions of bond.

Speaker 2:

Right, and those bond conditions, those remain in effect until the case is over. Those conditions are in place the entire time you're out on bond, which you're out on bond until the case is finally resolved, right.

Speaker 3:

Which is, and we can get those conditions changed for you. We can't get them done like in a day. There's certain you know certain things. We have to file a motion, we have to get a hearing. Some judges will just agree to it. Some prosecutors will agree to changing the no contact to no harmful, injurious contact, which means you guys can be together. You just can't threaten or hurt each other anymore.

Speaker 2:

Right and along those lines. You know, one of the things that can be frustrating as a defense attorney is when somebody comes in to do a consultation with me and I ask them for their paperwork that they received when they got out of jail and they've lost it. That paperwork has very important information for you. I mean it has your bond conditions. It may be that emergency protective order which if you violate you can be arrested for that.

Speaker 3:

Right, and we don't necessarily know how long the emergency protective order can be from 30 to 90 days. The order itself has it on there, but it's not easy for us to get that, a copy of that emergency protective order. You have to go to the JP in smaller counties. It's not easy to get your hands on it, right, right. And so we don't. And so we kind of need to see that, because if you're telling me it's only good for 30 days, kind of need to see that, because if you're telling me it's only good for 30 days, well, I want to see it, are you right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so whenever you're arrested, when you get out of jail, you should have paperwork, and you need to hold onto that paperwork and provide it to your attorney, because that's going to be very valuable in them determining how they're going to handle your case, what conditions you have in effect, what needs to be done immediately to help you either get back home, get back to your job whatever the case may be, allow you to travel outside of the county or wherever you may be.

Speaker 3:

Which brings us to our next point, though. Get an attorney on board early. Ok, it doesn't have to be us, we're very good at what we do, but you know, don't wait until. Oh geez, me and my wife want to go watch our son's recital together. Ok, let me hire an attorney. And it's Thursday and the recital is Friday. Right, Right, Get an attorney on board early so we can get on top of things early Stuff that happens before we get involved. We can't turn back the clock and fix it half the time.

Speaker 2:

That's right. And you know, and I've had plenty of people that come in and they, you know, maybe settle for an attorney that they don't want initially, and then, right before court or when they get a bad offer from the state or they're coming up for trial, they try to hire the attorney that they want. And I always tell people it's like building a house, if you know, I have a bad foundation. All I'm allowed to do is build on that bad foundation. I can't redo the entire thing because the case is already underway. So you need to get the lawyer that you want, the lawyer that you think is going to do the best job for you, right at the outset.

Speaker 2:

Don't wait too long. Correct. And that leads me to kind of a bonus tip that I would give, because this comes up a lot. There's a lot of people who assume that if the case does not go the way they want it, well, I'll just win it on appeal. I hear that all the time from people like, well, can't we just win that on appeal? It doesn't necessarily work that way.

Speaker 3:

Hardly any cases are reversed on appeal and before I went to law school I thought appeal they did, redid the trial all over again. Appeal is. All the appellate court looks at is the record the court reporter took down of the plea or the trial or things like that and they look to see if anything improper happened. That's it, and I don't know what the appellate reversal rate is, but I know it's very low. It's probably under 5%, right? So unless the judge, so if the judge rules our way throughout the trial, we don't have an appealable issue. I mean they're still going to appeal it but you're not going to win anything.

Speaker 2:

That's right, right. So I mean people assume, like Scott said, that well, an appeal is just a do-over. It's not a do over. They're not successful that often. So try to get it right the first time. Try to get the right attorney at the outset who's going to do a good job for you and take care of your case the way it should be done at the outset. That's something that we'd certainly be happy to help with. You can always reach us at 210-874-5080. This has been so. You Got Arrest, arrested with Scott Simpson and Steve Barrera.

Speaker 3:

A lot of trial experience between the two of us. There you go.

Speaker 1:

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