You always have your Miranda rights. You're required to be informed of them only if you are to be questioned (edit: while in a custodial interrogation, which me

You always have your Miranda rights. You're required to be informed of them only if you are to be questioned (edit: while in a custodial interrogation, which means you reasonably think you aren't fully there voluntarily) and your answers used against you in court. Or perhaps more accurately: if you answer a question from the police and weren't informed of your Miranda rights, a competent lawyer may be able to suppress some amount of the evidence gathered by the police as inadmissible. As far as I know this applies for all questioning, regardless of whether you're free to go, being detained, or under arrest. IANAL but I've had plenty of encounters with police. The key right you're asserting is not a "right to a lawyer" it's the right to remain silent. Asking for a lawyer helps you to do this, because otherwise they have much more latitude to try to convince or trick you into talking. If you said you are remaining silent until you talk to a lawyer, in theory, they have to leave you alone until the lawyer is there.