Know Your Rights: Sexner and Associates LLC Talks Search and Seizure in Chicago

CHICAGO, June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Seeing police at your door doesn't mean you have to let them in. The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unlawful search and seizure when there is a lack of probable cause to enter your home or vehicle.

"It's been said that fate knocks but once. Yet when it has a search warrant, sometimes it doesn't knock at all. That's when a good lawyer and a good carpenter come in handy," said Mitch Sexner, Founding Partner of Sexner & Associates LLC.

Sexner & Associates LLC is a dedicated legal team that concentrates in criminal defense and discusses here a couple things that you should know before allowing a police officer into or onto your property.

Know Your Rights:
On a federal level, Americans are protected from unlawful searches and seizures by the Fourth Amendment. Then on a state level, these protections are extended to Americans via the Fourteenth Amendment to prevent Police from entering a person's home or car without a search warrant or verbal consent.

If police are in pursuit of a suspect and have a reasonable belief that the person has fled into his or her home, that may be considered probable cause and the police may enter without a search warrant if in "hot pursuit."

Denying the entry of a police officer into your home is not necessarily considered to be resisting arrest or interfering with an investigation if it can be shown that the police were not given consent or did not have sufficient proof that a suspect was in your home.

Warrants:
There are two kinds of warrants that permit police officers to enter your home; search and arrest warrants. Arrest warrants allow police to arrest and search people and their immediate surroundings if they are named in the warrant. Search warrants allow police to search any area that is identified in the warrant. Such areas are not necessarily limited to specific locations and may include entire homes.

To obtain either type of warrant, police must be able to prove to a judge that there was reason to believe that a crime took place and in the case of a search warrant, that evidence linked to the crime would likely be found on the property. Warrants must be signed and approved by a judge or magistrate. 

Mitchell Sexner is a former prosecutor who formed his own law firm in 1990. Sexner & Associates LLC has represented more than 20,000 people since then, not only in the area traffic and criminal law, but in the areas of personal injury and medical malpractice law as well.

SOURCE Sexner & Associates LLC