Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Court Rules You Have the Right To Google a Lawyer
An anonymous reader writes "Hollywood crime dramas are infamous for the scene when an
accused is taken to a local police station and permitted a single phone call to
contact a relative or lawyer. While the storyline is myth — there is no limit on the number of phone calls available to an accused or detainee — Michael Geist reports
on a recent Canadian
case establishing a new, real requirement for law enforcement. After a 19-year
old struggled to find a lawyer using the telephone, the court ruled that police
must provide an accused with Internet access in order to exercise their right
to counsel."
It seems to me obvious that this should be the case; Google has for most people replaced those annoying phone books.
The only caveat is that they should make sure they lock down the machine well...
For police, the decision may have resource implications, since providing Internet access will be more costly and cumbersome than pointing to a nearby telephone.
The other problem is how much access are you going to give the suspect? Would the police be allowed to monitor everything in case the suspect tries to tamper with evidence or influence people?
They could easily have a list of lawyers on a piece of paper or computer to provide to people. Lawyers themselves could ask to be added to the list. If the sole purpose of internet access is to provide solely contact information, it seems a bit overkill, especially with "the decision may have resource implications, since providing Internet access will be more costly and cumbersome than pointing to a nearby telephone."
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
You could use an iPad!
If you were allowed to call your lawyer, would you know who to call?
bickerdyke
Michael Geist left wing? You must not have the same definition of left wing as we have in Canada. And his fart are mostly centered and low from what I heard.
... my lawyer is on a raid in WoW, I MUST level my char to 80 to be able to reach him!
If you were allowed to call a lawyer multiple times then I see no reason not to allow a person to google a lawyer.
This might actually speed things up and maybe even alleviate the need for an escort. A cell with some locked down access to a yellow pages site or something of the sort. No need to leave.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
What makes you think that you'd be any better off using google than posting a request for your facebook friends. And if you're indigent (if you cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed for you), you might as well use your computer time to do something you enjoy.
My experience has been that there's more demand for bail bondsmen than attorneys at the local lockup. Most people would rather be released on bond and THEN find an attorney. Of course, if you're being interrogated, your strategy is "say nothing". Eventually, they have to find you an attorney or let you go.
Sounds painful.
CowboyNeal option
...what good is the internet if you are...unable to type?
[Apologies to those with physical challenges.]
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Anyone not fascist enough to have the jackboot of government stuck halfway up their ass is left wing to some of the people here.
If you are too stupid to use the yellow pages, how can you operate a computer?
Tomorrow is another day...
For those of us who have had the unfortunate pleasure of being arrested, think about it. You had to call a relative, or look in a phone book for some advertisement of a lawyer. While I doubt they'll be getting many of these machines, one usually has at least 24 hours of free time in jail. Why not give that time to do at least /some/ due diligence in picking one's council. Bravo Canada.
Where genius and insanity become confused true wisdom is found
And here's why -- just imagine if police were forced to provide this in the '80s. Kevin Mitnick could have used a Google search box to activate a script running on WOPR to launch a nuclear missile!
We wouldn't even be here on Slashdot now, just huddled in our underground shelters for decades waiting for the end of nuclear winter. Although now that I think about it, I haven't been out of mom's basement since World of Warcraft was released. So I guess no real difference there.
Hollywood, Television, has become the dream machine. We need to take that back; each of us is a Dream Machine
In Canada, internet access is a "basic right" (what this means is kind of complicated, but basically everyone needs to be able to access internet, legally ... at least unless they are incarcerated already).
So under our law, this allowance for access is easily within reading such rights.
Not a lawyer, but worked for Canadian ISPs since the '90s.
The portrayal of police procedures in "Hollywood crime dramas" is generally going to reflect US law (or the popular perception of it, anyway). Last time I checked, our Neighbors to the North had their own legal system - one that doesn't always mirror our American one.
#DeleteChrome
Dang summary made me go look at various Miranda/phone call pages on tvtropes!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MirandaRights
In Canada, the right to contact counsel does not extend to the right to have that counsel present during questioning. Unlike in the US, we can't tell the police to bugger off until our lawyer shows up. They can question us without counsel present as long as they like. We don't have to answer, but they can continue aggressive questioning.
Not to mention the fact that Michael is well respected in his real job as a law professor and does this mostly out of the goodness of his heart (of course, since his real job is teaching, I'm sure there's crossover with his advocacy hobby).
Canada has a public health care system.
Unfortunately, it does not have a public "justice care" system. If you need to defend yourself in court, you either need to pay a huge amount of money or, if you cannot afford the shittiest possible lawyer, you'll get a public defender that is so overworked and underfunded as to be even worse than the aforementioned shittiest possible lawyer.
Once I asked an acquaintance of mine, who happens to be a criminal lawyer, how much on the average does it cost to have a decent legal representation for, say, a murder case. His answer: "How much does it worth it to you?"
The institutional injustice system is a blight upon society.
"While the storyline is myth — there is no limit on the number of phone calls available to an accused or detainee — " In California, the arrestee has a right to 3 FREE phone calls within the local area codes (California Penal Code section 851.5). This has likely been bastardized over time to be what people perceive to be their "only calls" they get. There IS a limit on the phone calls available to an inmate outside of their 3 free ones- that limitation is that they must have friends willing to pay $20 for 15 minutes of collect calls. Which basically means the only calls most inmates get are those 3 free phone calls. As well, phone calls can usually only be made during dayroom hours- usually the 12 hours of the day general population is allowed to be outside of their rooms. My favorite line arrestees always say is, "They didn't read me my Miranda rights!" An officer only has to read you your miranda rights if they question you about your culpability in a case AFTER they've arrested you for that offense (or after they have developed enough information to be able to arrest you). The general rule for Miranda is "Custody (usually arrest) + interrogation." Absent both of those, need not be mirandized (most people aren't).