Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers in Fan Works.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Embers (Vathara) has a Cultural Clash variant. Since the Fire Nation is deeply enmeshed in political intrigue and warfare, along with Hot-Bloodedness tending to run rampant), citizens of the Fire Nation have a tendency to slip into extremely vague, formal ways of speech whenever they feel pressured, as the slightest ill-conceived word could prove disastrous. This tends to make them look like they're hiding something, frustrating those from other lands.
- Mortified: Averted. As far as trials in the Ghost Zone go, everyone has a right to their own Advocate. Even the witnesses. In fact, it's almost legally obligated for everyone to have their own Advocate, because everyone who has a stake in the trial (including the witnesses) needs to tell their Advocate what their ideal outcome for the trial is, so their Advocate can help them prepare their testimony to help achieve that end.
- The Sound Designer: Unlike his ursine accomplice, the coyote knows better than to answer questions alone and phones his lawyer.
- Parodied in The Coolest Evil Dumbledore Ever. When Dolores Umbridge starts asking uncomfortable questions, Arthur Weasley says he won't say anything without a lawyer. It is immediately treated as him giving his evilness away.
- Averted in The Ollivander Children when ordinary Muggle Mark gets arrested by the Ministry of Magic after being caught in possession of Calliope's wand. Despite being an ignorant idiot at worst, the second thing he does when put on trial is to demand legal counsel since he's smart enough to realize he has no idea what he's gotten himself into. (The first is to call Dolores Umbridge out on her conflict of interest in the case, since she arrested him in the first place.)
- What They Wouldn't Do: Averted by Sarah; when the police take her in for questioning, she calls Matt and Foggy and refuses to answer questions until they arrive.
- Seen in The Karma of Lies after Gabriel is unmasked and arrested:
- Lila subtly invokes this alongside Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: she reveals to her mother how she'd secretly taken a modeling job with Agreste Fashion, and willingly goes to give a statement to the police with only her mother present. Her willingness to cooperate helps her sell herself as an Unwitting Pawn who was unknowingly manipulated by both Gabriel and Adrien, who tearfully denies the idea that the latter is involved once she realizes the police are growing suspicious.
- Adrien is also more than happy to speak to the police... once he's got a personal reason to do so, after Lila cleans out their emergency bank account. Officer Raincomprix repeatedly advises him to contact one of his family's lawyers and have them present while giving his statements, but Adrien blows off the suggestion, convinced he doesn't need a lawyer. After all, he hasn't done anything wrong, so all he needs to do is tell the truth, right? It takes multiple meetings and Adrien repeatedly nagging the police about their lack of progress on the only part of the case he cares about for it to finally sink in that his testimony hasn't worked in his favor. Once he finally gets a lawyer involved, they spell out just how deep a hole he'd managed to dig for himself with his thoughtless, unsupervised accounts.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Vengeance of Dawn: When Dawn's gang meets up in Hardy Bloom's office, Hardy remarks that "You know most people come see their lawyer after they've committed a crime."
- Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox: Discussed when Kira Ay is presented with a body of evidence that suggests that they're involved with Akatsuki. They request legal advice; when this is treated as suggesting their guilt, they retort that they never studied law. Regardless of their actual guilt or innocence, they need legal representation to deal with the charges.
- Discussed in Strange Times Are Upon Us. Ba'wov espouses this in the opening when she and Brokosh are being interrogated by the Department of Temporal Investigations. Brokosh correctly points out that you always get a lawyer regardless of your guilt or innocence.
