Florida, like many states and the federal government, has some draconian asset forfeiture laws. For some reason, the state’s practice of forfeiting property from suspects based on very little evidence does not get much coverage, but taking property from people suspected of committing crimes is a favorite practice of police…
In most cases, if the police want to search your residence for drugs, guns or other evidence of criminal activity, they need consent from the owner or someone with authorization or a search warrant. However, there are some exceptions. One such exception is the hot pursuit doctrine. The hot pursuit…
Can you walk into a federally licensed firearm dealer’s shop and purchase a firearm for someone else? In other words, can your uncle Joe, who lawfully owns other firearms, give you $900 to go into the local gun shop to buy him a new semi-automatic? The United States Supreme Court…
Most people have heard through school, interaction with the judicial system, television shows or otherwise that there is a constitutional right to jury trial for people charged with a crime. This is usually true, but it is not true in every case. There is an exception for certain minor crimes…
In Florida, the general rule is that the police cannot search a person’s property without a search warrant or specific consent from the owner of that property. There are exceptions, of course, but a police search without a search warrant or consent is generally going to be illegal. When the…
As most people are aware in Florida and elsewhere, when the police arrest a suspect or take a suspect into custody, the police are required to read the suspect the Miranda warnings before attempting to take a statement from the suspect. The Miranda warnings discuss a variety of rights, but…
Every now and then, and often during holiday time like New Year’s Eve coming up, the police in Florida and other states will set up DUI checkpoints in strategic areas of the city. These checkpoints are normally located down the street from a popular bar or other area where people…
This unlawful search took place in a Florida school south of Jacksonville, Florida. In this case, students at the Florida school reported to school officials that some other students were playing with a taser on school grounds. The school security officer spoke to some kids who indicated that the suspect…
In order for the police to be able to search your home for evidence of a crime, they either have to have a valid search warrant or they have to have consent from the owner or someone with proper authorization to give that consent. For the latter method, the police…
In our last post, we discussed when the police can search the contents of a cell phone belonging to a suspect. We referenced a case where the police illegally searched a password protected cell phone that had been abandoned by the defendant. Since it involved an abandoned cell phone, that…