The constitution guarantees everyone rights when it comes to criminal law. For example, being told about and understanding your right to remain silent is one such right. However, the Miranda rights themselves have some misconceptions surrounding them, as do many other things involving the criminal justice system.

The information below will hopefully help dispel the rumors and debunk the myths, and make you more prepared should you ever end up needing this information.

Phone Call

While many rights are guaranteed thanks to the Constitution, not all are, and the right to make a phone call is one of them. Since there is no federal regulation on whether or not you’re even allowed to make a call at all, some states won’t allow you to do so. Others only allow for it under special circumstances, such as for parents who need to arrange for child care services.

Many, though, allow for at least one call to be made. These aren’t the only restrictions callers may have, though: you may be limited as to who you can even call. Typically, you’ll at least be allowed to contact a lawyer, a bail bondsman (the person who sets up the bail bill), and a family member, but that’s usually it.

You should also make these calls quickly because they usually have a time limit attached. If you’re ever arrested, make sure to ask about a phone call since they’re not all required to tell you if you get one, and contact your lawyer as soon as possible. If you’re not, then try and say as little as possible until you can get a lawyer to represent you.

Miranda Rights

You probably know the Miranda rights quite well, since every arrest shown on TV or in movies sees the cops recite them.

They tell you you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you, you can have a lawyer present during questioning, and one will be appointed by the state if you cannot afford one yourself and you want a lawyer present. This is all true; the misconception comes from how they affect a case. This warning is only technically required to be told to you when you’re both in custody and about to be questioned by the police.

You can be questioned without being in custody or even arrested without needing these rights to be told to you. And no, the lack of Miranda rights does not void your case. It just means that, for the most part, your own words during the in-custody questioning can’t be used against you in court to prove whether or not you’re guilty.

Insanity Pleas

One of the most common federal law myths pertains to how pleading insanity might help you avoid jail time. This is not true; there are tests in place to make sure the system isn’t abused. It’s well-known by authorities that some criminals may try and weaponize their own mental health struggles, or lack thereof, to get out of trouble.

So, every defendant who tries to use either the reason of sanity or diminished capacity defense must go through certain tests to see if some kind of mental health disorder or illness caused the crime.

If these tests prove that you were legally competent to know you shouldn’t do it and could choose not to, but did so anyway, then you are still going to be in trouble. In fact, lying about these things could put you in even more trouble, so only use these defenses if they truly can apply to your situation.

Witness Testimony

Maybe the biggest misconception about legal cases revolves around eyewitness testimony. While it can be beneficial to either side to have an eyewitness testimony, they can be inaccurate due to how complex human memory is. Obviously, it fades over time and details usually become less clear as a result, but there are other problems to consider.

Everything from personal biases to the lighting of the scene affects memory and can lead to unintentional false testimony. Again, the claims of an eyewitness can be beneficial, but the justice system is taking the fallibility of the human memory more seriously as time goes on, so you will need further evidence to strengthen or even prove your claims.