Category Archives: Fourth Amendment

What is the difference between reasonable suspicion and probable cause?

November 30, 2011

Reasonable suspicion is what they need to detain you. Probable cause is what they need to search. Slightly different burdens and a slightly different analysis.
If you’re contacted by the police, your first question should be, “Am I free to go?” If the answer is yes, then you are free to walk away. [...]

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Privacy, cell phones and police searches - lock up your phones!

January 25, 2011

The United States Constitution protects you from unreasonable searches and seizures.  Under the Fourth Amendment, the police must either have a search warrant or some recognized exception to be able to legally search (and therefore gather evidence to be used against you).
One of the exceptions is a search “incident to an arrest.”  Since 1973, the [...]

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Passengers rights in DUI checkpoint

January 7, 2011

With all the holiday DUI checkpoints that have occurred, I was asked recently about passengers’ rights.  For example, what if the police made observations about a passenger during a DUI checkpoint?
As a passenger in a DUI checkpoint, you have the same rights as anyone else to challenge the legality of the checkpoint, the [...]

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Pat down searches - Orange County Criminal Defense

January 3, 2011

When can the police pat you down?  How far can they go?
A patdown search, sometimes called Terry search or a frisk is only authorized in certain circumstances.  If you want to see a perfect example of when it’s not supposed to happen, look at an old rerun of the TV show COPS.   Seems like every [...]

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Do the police have to show the search warrant? What about reading my rights?

October 7, 2010

Search Warrants and Miranda Rights
After the police serve a search warrant, the questions that frequently come up are:  “Were they required to show me the warrant?”  and “I was never read my rights while they searched my house - weren’t they supposed to?”
There is no legal requirement that the search warrant be shown during the [...]

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