Perceived racial distance from counsel suppresses client disclosure of case facts

Evidence

Relatedly, the client should not only be well-represented, but he or she should feel well-represented. Perhaps the most important person in any defense is the defendant. If the client is not on-board with the defense strategy, it will not go well. If he is in the jail, not going well would mean that he would be getting into fights, or talking to other inmates about his case, or not telling his attorney important facts. Moreover, if he thinks that the attorney does not understand him because the attorney is of a different race or ethnicity, he might not even try to share his concerns. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 689

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the conviction-vs-measured-bias gap: perceived (not necessarily actual) attorney bias on race grounds shuts down disclosure, a concrete mechanism tying trust perception to legal outcomes.
• QUESTION: Is there data linking actual measured attorney bias to client withdrawal, versus only perceived-sameness effects, in legal settings?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 689