Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog
In Florida, when police search something, such as a vehicle, and find drugs or other evidence of illegal activity, the defendant can normally file a motion to suppress the evidence based on an illegal search under the Fourth Amendment. However, not every defendant has a right to challenge every search by police that results in an arrest. A defendant must have standing to challenge a search by the police. In other words, the defendant must have some possessory or ownership interest in the thing that was searched to be able to challenge the search. More specifically, the defendant must have had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the thing that was searched to be lawfully permitted to challenge the search. That is the standard for standing to challenge an allegedly illegal search.
In a case south of Jacksonville, Florida, the defendant was stopped in a vehicle for running a red light. The police ultimately searched the vehicle and found oxycodone, cocaine and other drugs inside. The defendant was arrested for possession of various drugs. The criminal defense lawyer filed a motion to suppress the evidence of all of the drugs arguing that the search was illegal. The state responded by arguing the defendant had no legal right to challenge the search because the vehicle was a rental car, and the defendant was not listed as an authorized driver on the rental car contract nor had he paid for the rental car.
The trial court agreed with the state based on a Florida case which said the driver of a rental car does not have standing to challenge the search of that rental car if he is not authorized to drive the car by the owner, the rental car company, even if the person who did properly rent the car gave the driver permission to drive the rental car. However, several years later, the United States Supreme Court decided the issue differently. The United States Supreme Court is controlling. The Supreme Court ruled that a person in lawful possession of a rental car does have standing to challenge a search of the rental car even if he isn’t listed as an authorized driver on the rental car contract. Just because a person is not listed as an authorized driver does not mean it is unlawful for him to drive it. It may be a violation of the rental car agreement and might have implications for insurance if there is an accident, but being an unauthorized driver according to the rental car agreement does not make a person an illegal driver. However, if a person steals a car and is stopped by the police who search the vehicle and find drugs or evidence of the theft, that defendant would not have standing to challenge the search of the vehicle as he would not be in lawful possession of the vehicle.