Yes, you do have rights. The police are only allowed to search your car under limited exceptions which a lawyer can best advise you on.

When you are facing a criminal case there are many protections that allow the cops to invade your privacy and violate your 4th amendment rights but will later be deemed legal. That is especially true if you aren’t able to advocate for yourself. For example when the cops pull you over they generally aren’t able to search your car without your consent unless some narrow exceptions exist. But in a recent California case of Branner, the cops pulled over a car that’s back license plate wasn’t well lit and headlights weren’t at the proper angle. After pulling the car over the cops noticed that the driver didn’t have his proper address on his license, due to moving eight months prior, thereby putting him in violation of a previous case that made him required to register as a drug offender. Based on this, the police placed the driver under arrest and in the back of their squad car and proceeded to search his car where they found more paraphernalia and adding more charges to the driver’s case.

The driver appealed the case due to the fact that they had detained him for an unreasonable time under new case law that had occurred since his detention and arrest. In the new case that came down after the driver was arrested, the court stated that to detain a person to search their car for unlawful activity not related to the arrest was a violation of the suspect’s 4th amendment rights. In making that ruling the court stated that the new rule would be retroactively applied, meaning that even cases and incidents that had occurred prior to the new law being created the law would and should still be applied.

When the court looked at applying that new rule to the drivers case the court decided that it was inapplicable because the cops acted, in what is called, “good faith” because when they conducted the search they believed they were acting legally. Also the court went on to say that the reason the driver was arrested was because of his noncompliance with updating his address for his drug offender case and not because of his vehicle code infractions which were the cause of his original stop. So due to the fact that the arrest was due to the previous drug case they had reason to search the car for any additional drug paraphernalia without violating the driver’s rights.

This case is the perfect example of technicalities and why you need a good lawyer to advocate in court for you. If the court had ruled that the vehicle code violation had been the reason for arrest, then the driver could have possibly won the case.

When you are faced with a criminal case, the complexity of the system and the laws are difficult to understand. That is why it’s important you hire an experienced criminal defense lawyer to defend you in your criminal case. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo can offer you a free consultation to discuss your case. Call us today for that consultation at (626) 799-9375.