Car Search and Seizure

Let’s hope that there wouldn’t be a reason why you would need to worry about this, but HYPOTHETICALLY, you may need to be aware of when/why an officer would have the legal right to search your car.  An officer may have a justifiable reason to pull you over, but that does NOT give the officer the right to search your car.   You may ask what is a justifiable reason.  This is where the law gets gray.  The legal term is “reasonable.”  I know that that doesn’t really seem definite, but that word is surprisingly used a lot in law.  Reasonable is usually determine by whether the officer sees something that would give reason for further investigation (e.g. drug paraphernalia) in the back seat.  Keep in mind that that’s only if the officer SEES it.  He/she is not allowed to ask you to lower your windows if it’s legally tinted to the point of not being able to see in.

In the end, use common sense on whether you think your vehicle is suspect.  For example, don’t leave empty beer cans (even if it’s was drank weeks ago) sitting the car.  It’s often tough to argue with the officer if the officer thinks that there is a valid reason to perform a search.  If you have nothing to hide, you’re better off with the inconvenience.  If you do, then don’t let the officer search and call your lawyer!