Julie, Call My Lawyer

Wassup, rockers!
I've been on a bit on a "Law and Order" kick lately. Primarily "Criminal Intent", but also the slightly inferior original version and the somewhat more inferior "SVU". (I just sat through an episode of "SVU" last night with a twenty minute scene of that Merloni turd talking to his psychiatrist. She should have just said - "Everything that's bad in the world in bad because of people like you - now let's get back to a mystery of some sort." And don't tell me I'm wrong - idiot tough guys are the cause of 98.37% of the world's problems. Michael Jackson is responsible for the other 1. 63%.)
Anyway.
The thing I've never understood about "Law and Order" is how whenever they arrest someone, or threaten arresting someone, the person mentions their lawyer.
Now, I'm about to be celebrating the second anniversary of my 29th birthday, and I've had dealings with a lawyer (e.g. I got hit by a fucking truck), but if a police came to arrest me, I wouldn't be thinking, "I need to get my lawyer." Cuz, truth be told, he wasn't all that great of a personal injury lawyer, I can't imagine him trying to get me down to Man 1 on a murder charge, like they do on the TV.
So - what the fuck with people having lawyers on call? Should I get one? You know, just in case Jesse L. Martin busts in singing a song from "Rent" and telling me I need to man up, dawg?

TIMMY'S RETROACTIVE 100 BOOKS IN 1 YEAR LIST (NOW WITH GRADES!)
Begin: 10/30/2006
1. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (O+)
2. Fantasyland by Sam Walker (O)
3. The Commitments by Roddy Doyle (H +)
4. The Snapper by Roddy Doyle (O)
5. The Van by Roddy Doyle (H)
6. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover (O)
7. Wonderland: A Year in the Life of an American High School by Michael Bamberger (O)
8. Whiteout: Lost in Aspen by Ted Conover (H+)
9. The Ruins by Scott Smith (O)
10. The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth by Frank Rich (H)
11. The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (H)
12. Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth (O)
13. The Worst Person in The World by Keith Olbermann (O-)
14. The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman (O+)
15. The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos (O)
16. Nature Girl by Carl Hiassen (current)