why is the right to have a lawyer present during questioning important ?

Question

if you are arrested...

Answer 1

Miranda v. Arizona

So you do not incriminate yourself, a lawyer protects you from unlawful police questioning.
 

Answer 2

The Miranda rule actually came out as a way to loosen the constitutional requirements. until Miranda, the rule was that police could not question a person at all until a lawyer was present, the Miranda rule loosened that rule by requiring that police merely give a verbal warning to the arrestee that he has a right to remain silent. Anything asked after the warning is given then becomes admissible in a court of law.

it is a grave mistake to speak. if you get arrested, dont open your mouth, don't say a word, just ask for a lawyer. the minute you ask for a lawyer the cops lose ability to interrogate. the rule is that if you simply remain silent, the cops can continue to interrogate (so long as they gave miranda warning beforehand), however if a person asks for a lawyer, then the interrogation must end right there.
Also its important to remember that Miranda only covers what is said, so If I were to say "the body is buried in my backyard behind the shed", then while the statement itself may not me admissible as evidence, the dead body certainly is!
so rule 1: shut up! rule 2: ask for a lawyer.

Answer 3

You and the guy or gal they just arrested are not experts on law, scientists of constitutional regulation and law as I am.
And as name-up-in-lights, whiz-bang smart as I say I am--I'd still want a lawyer present. Why?

To avoid saying anything incriminating that could later be used against me. To avoid making any admission, true or partly true, that I am not required to make.
To avoid saying something the wrong way which makes me look bad.
To avail myself of what tiny few rights I have left in a country where I have almost none and virtually no recourse to the protections that govern mentally employed officers were supposed to provide to me and everyone else according to our founders' writings and thinkings..
And to take advantage of this one remaining protection
precisely because it is someone's 'rights' that were only supposed to have been violated; even if I did do something that violated them, motive may be the most important thing, exact actions and whatever I knew when I took them may be vital to answering questions of negligence, culpability or even the category of the cvomplaint that might be lodged against me.
You'd better believe I'll want a mouthpiece there. I may think better, know more and speak better than he/she does--
but in an elected society of totalitarian rights-violators, I need all the help I can get in a technical and perhaps foundationless situation; one wherein I, a victim of rights violators, bigots, discriminatory tsars and incompetent, unethical god-playing interferers for many many years am now being accused either of something I didn't do, didn't mean the way it came out, couldn't know enough about rto avoid doing, couldn't have done any other way or will want to minimize in any case.
Please, get real if it ever happens to you or to someone you care about.
This isn't America--it's a fascistic bureucracy--and lawyers are trained to deal with the rulersof that totalitarian dictatorship; you ARE NOT. And as much as I know about the scence of normative constitutional science, pal--neither am I.

Answer 4

It is important because lawyers know how to navigate the legal system and will protect you from incriminating yourself or submitting to something that you are not required to submit to. If you are being questioned about a crime and have been mirandized, get a lawyer.

Answer 5

It is part of the due process of a person's rights as guaranteed by the US Constitution. Every state has different laws and rules of procedure. It would be important to have an attorney who is knowledgable concerning laws and rules of court to be able to defend one's self.

Answer 6

Because anything you say will be used against you in court.An attorney is there to protect your rights and help you know how to ansewr questions are to tellyou not to if the can hurt you later if you have to go to trial

Answer 7

Your attorney can direct you appropriate as to what questions they can ask and what they can't. Also, your attorney can tell you what you should and should not answer. You are MUCH more likely to screw yourself by talking, without an attorney.

Answer 8

Because without one you might say something you didn't even know you said.