As stated many times on this subreddit, you do not speak to LE when you're in a tight spot; you do not even deny any accusations. Rather, you keep your mouth shut and utilize your right to legal council.
My question is: do you tell the lawyer the whole truth? I always thought, perhaps naively, that you do indeed tell the lawyer the truth, and he will do his best to defend you regardless of guilt. I recently had a conversation with someone who's in law school (a convo unrelated to any DNM activities) and he said a lawyer cannot defend you in court if he knows what you are saying is false (counts as perjury).
Let's say for instance you got CD'ed and are taken to jail. Do you really tell your lawyer "yes I bought drugs off the internet?" For refence, this gentlemen seemed to do so and it faired well for him.
I was raised by a public defender and have two defense attorney siblings.
You NEVER have a reason to lie to your attorney. The number of posts here I have read that say that you should never tell them the truth is outrageous.
The rumors that they're in bed with the DA and flip clients for others? End of career instantly for both. Defending you is not furthering your crime. You should, if you're participating in illegal activity already have the name of a good criminal attorney. When you are confronted, you call him and speak to nobody.
Cases are NOT won by the silly "I wrote return to sender on it!!!" and all this ridiculousness about how your attorney is ethically obligated to "turn you in" drives me nuts. That's another farewell to the career. They can not defend you on an alternate version of events if they know it to be untrue, like you can't make up a complete lie about what happened and have you attorney present you on the stand and have you purjure yourself. Their job is to mitigate your damages, assure evidence is obtained properly, review the facts of the case and the evidence against you, and advise you on what your best decision is. They can not help you if they don't know the truth. And all of the truth.
Your attorney can not tell you how to get away with a crime. You can't have a Saul. But they are educated and practiced, they know the laws, and they are bound by their ethical code to keep only your best interest in their actions. Simply put, they may not betray you. Trust them, end of story.
And I have to add my rant on Public Defenders. My late father spent thirty years, his entire career, as the PD of a small town in the Appalachian region. He simply believed that everyone was entitled to a defense according to the constitution and laws of the country and that an incredible amount of cases are won by the defense due to procedural error. He did not like defending child molesters. He had three capitol offenses, two given not guilty pleas, one thrown out. All three did commit the murders. But in many regions it is an elected position and nobody would run for that office every other year if they didn't believe in this as strongly.
When I would come visit, I always loved watching my dad in court. Small town so he was the only PD and eventually was given an asssistant. He had most of the county's indigent clients but an equal number of private practice cases because in a small town, he was the best defense attorney because he did it all the time because he wanted to - he had to run for office every other year just to do it. He was passionate and brilliant. He retired to 1500km away fifteen years before he passed. When I called the DA, who had once been his assistant PD, to please help me with passing the word around, the next day the sitting judge called me to ask if our family could travel to attend a memorial session to honor him. FIFTEEN years after he retired.
He is not unique, either. Attorneys vastly go into law for the sake of helping people, not for the money (especially now - 50% of graduates are still not employed one year later). Many, if not most, get into a field because they love the law that they specialize in, not the paycheck. Dad never made over 40k a year in his life.
If I were ever in legal trouble I would search until I could find a PD who took private clients (most do) because they are so widely experienced in all aspects of the system in their jurisdiction, know the judges, know how things generally work out because they've seen it ALL. I would tell them every detail they asked and put 100% of my trust in them. I am a chemsit. Most of this sub is not finished with their educations yet, let alone practiced attorneys. I hate to sound ageist but the things I believed as a 17-25 year old shock me. And the "legal advice" here passed around is almost entirely what someone told them in grade 10 because it made sense.