Defendant Lashes Out From Witness Stand During Proud Boys Trial

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

28. Attorneys have no choice about it, really

Most criminals are quite stupid, and thus are prone to doing stupid things against the advice of their lawyers, like testifying in court, rather than keeping their fool mouths shut. I'm sure most attorneys get used to this, and always prep for a client to insist on testifying in court at some point. Because if they want to do it, the attorney either has to go along--or quit.

You have to remember who's working for whom: It seems like the attorney is in charge of everything, but they're not. They're employees of the clients. Not the boss.

So if a client gets it in his fool head to testify, the attorney can advise against it--but only advise. If the client insists on it, anyway, all the attorney can do at that point is get on top of how to present the testimony, to contain any potential damage.