The Fish that Gets Caught
In my small hometown, some of the elected officials who serve on our Town Board are being challenged in the courts with various charges of corruption, from bribery and cronyism to harassment and discrimination. The legal fees to defend these cases are mounting, and taxpayers are nervous about the possibility of long, drawn-out proceedings, not to mention the awards being sought, one of which is $30 million.
As a professional marketing person, I have always relied on communications to pay for my supper, but in “legaleze” speak, it’s the lack of communications that seems to be the first line of defense. All the defendants in these cases have said either “no comment” or they have referred any questions to their lawyers, who also say nothing. This drives me a little crazy sometimes.
If I were personally accused of even the very least of these offenses, my natural instinct would be to say, “Whoa, are you nuts? Me?” But in representing clients, I do say that there is a time to be open and a time to be silent. Lawyers demand that their clients always be silent however. I called a friend of mine who has served as a state Supreme Court justice and asked him why there’s always a gag rule for clients. He responded simply, “because it’s the fish that opens its mouth that gets caught!”
Yeah, but doesn’t this assume that the clients will get caught only if they’re guilty? What about the innocent ones? Why can’t they proclaim their innocence with confidence and let others know exactly what the situation is? Assuming of course, that they’re innocent. Do we always have to listen to the lawyers? Didn’t Shakespeare say to kill all the lawyers first?
