Search and Seizure Attorneys
in Boston MA
Your best search and seizure attorneys in Boston, Massachusetts, are ready to fight for you. Skilled criminal defense lawyers at Leon & Davis have a strong record of success representing clients in search and seizure cases in Boston, Worcester, Brockton, and across Massachusetts.
Search & Seizure Law in Massachusetts
Understanding Your Search and Seizure Rights in Massachusetts.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights protect you against illegal searches and seizures conducted by law enforcement. Searches and seizures of evidence conducted without a search warrant are considered unlawful by the courts unless an exception to the warrant requirement applies.
When Search and Seizure May Be Conducted Without a Warrant?
There are a number of exceptions to the Fourth Amendment that have developed over the years. For example, police do not need a search warrant if a person consents to the search of their property.
What is a Motion to Suppress?
A motion to suppress evidence is critically important in gun and drug cases because it may be the only viable defense a person has if police find the contraband on their person. Although that person may be engaging in criminal activity, our legal system prohibits prosecutors from using evidence against you that was obtained by violating your rights. The rationale behind this is to deter police from using unlawful conduct or procedures when they are investigating suspected criminal activity.
Essentially, a motion to suppress evidence challenges the legality of the actions taken by law enforcement that resulted in the seizure of evidence.
Motion to Suppress in Search and Seizure without a Warrant Cases
If the search was conducted without a warrant, then the prosecutor must prove that an exception to the warrant requirement applies in order for the search to be upheld. If the prosecutor cannot prove that an exception applies, then the search will not be legally justified. In that case, all evidence obtained as a result of this unlawful search will be suppressed. The determination of whether the search was legitimate will be made by a judge after a hearing on the motion to suppress where both the prosecution and defense have the opportunity to present evidence, witness testimony, and arguments for the judge to consider.
To find out if a warrant was issued in your case, you may search Massachusetts Court Records.
The attorneys at Leon & Davis have won countless motions to suppress evidence resulting in the dismissal of all charges in search and seizure cases in Boston, MA and elsewhere in the state of Massachusetts.
Why Do You Need a Search and Seizure Attorney in Massachusetts?
When Can Search and Seizure Attorneys File the Motion to Supress Evidence?
Skilled and experienced search and seizuer attorneys know how to apply the law to your advantage in a criminal case. If your rights were violated by police when they obtained evidence against you, then your attorney will likely be able to persuade a judge to suppress the evidence. This will often force the prosecution to dismiss all of the charges against you because the suppressed evidence will no longer be available to them for use at trial. In other cases, it may lead to the suppression of damaging evidence which can improve your defense and increase your chances of winning at trial or obtaining a more favorable resolution before trial. A prosecutor will usually improve the terms of a plea offer if their case against you becomes weaker as a result of a successful motion to suppress.
What Can Search and Seizure Attorneys Do if a Warrant Was Issued?
In cases where a search warrant has issued, there are still grounds to attempt to suppress the evidence. Your search and seizure attorney might be able to persuade a judge that the search warrant issued without sufficient probable cause to believe that evidence of criminal activity would be located in the place to be searched. In some cases, your attorney might be able to successfully argue that police included deliberately false or misleading information in their application for a search warrant. Your attorney might be able to convince a judge that the search warrant is overbroad because it lacks sufficient particularity and this could lead to the suppression of some or all of the evidence seized by police. If police used a confidential informant in obtaining the search warrant, your attorney might be able to convince the judge that the information provided by the informant in support of the warrant application was unreliable or that the informant lacked a sufficient basis of knowledge for their claims to police.
Hire a Search and Seizure Attorney in Boston MA
Leon & Davis’ search and seizure attorneys in Boston MA will thoroughly investigate the actions of law enforcement in your case and aggressively defend your constitutional rights. We are skilled at impeaching the credibility of police statements and testimony in order to convince a judge that an officer is lying or providing misleading evidence to the court. We have suppressed large quantities of narcotics, firearms, text messages, photographs and many other items of contraband or evidence of criminal activity that the prosecution sought to use against our clients. We have suppressed evidence extracted from cell phones, computers and other electronic devices.
Call us today so we can give you the best opportunity to suppress the incriminating evidence against you and win your case.