If you’re pulled over while driving and told to step out of your car so a police officer can search it, stop and think about why the officer is asking you to do so.  If he or she sees something in your car that gives him or her probable cause to search your vehicle, the officer is perfectly within his or her rights to do so.  However, if there is nothing that gives an officer reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, the officer has no legal right to search your vehicle.  In some cases, racial profiling affects an officer’s judgment; in other cases, the officer has no real facts to back up the search but proceeds to do one anyway.

Illegal search and seizure pertains to more than just vehicles, however.  It also relates to officers searching your person and your home.  An officer with reasonable cause may ask to search your purse or backpack if you are suspected of stealing something, but this does not give them the right to search your car or your home.  Likewise, probable cause applies to your home—if the officer cannot see anything from the front door, he or she has no reason to enter your home, and you can deny the officer entry.

In many cases, especially those related to drugs, an illegal search and seizure motion may get much of the evidence thrown out.  As a Ventura defense attorney, Mr. Robert Helfend makes it his priority to evaluate the legality of the search in all cases.  If he suspects the search was not legal, he will file all the appropriate motions to ask the Court to exclude all illegally obtained evidence, and have your case dismissed.