This is a Complaint pleading for use in litigation of the title matter. Adapt this form to comply with your facts and circumstances, and with your specific state law. Not recommended for use by non-attorneys.
This is a Complaint pleading for use in litigation of the title matter. Adapt this form to comply with your facts and circumstances, and with your specific state law. Not recommended for use by non-attorneys.
The Constitution, through the Fourth Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
Probable cause to believe that a person is committing or has committed a crime or that evidence of that crime can be found in a specific place and a judge/magistrate has issued a search warrant or arrest warrant. The accused has consented to the search.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to ...
Examples of probable cause include finding illegal substances during a search, witnessing a person commit a crime, or receiving credible information from an informant. However, intuition or hunches alone are not sufficient to establish probable cause under the Fourth Amendment.
Wesby, the United States Supreme Court observed that probable cause requires only a probability or substantial chance of criminal activity, not an actual showing of any criminal behaviors.
Some courts and scholars have suggested probable cause could, in some circumstances, allow for a fact to be established as true to a standard of less than 51%, but as of August 2019, the United States Supreme Court has never ruled that the quantification of probable cause is anything less than 51%.
There are four categories into which evidence may fall in establishing probable cause. These include observational, circumstantial, expertise, and information: Observational evidence is based on what the officer sees, smells, or hears.
Exceptions to the Fourth Amendment: The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. However, reasonable suspicion is one of the exceptions to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement.
Regarding the issuance of a warrant for arrest, probable cause is the “information sufficient to warrant a prudent person's belief that the wanted individual had committed a crime (for an arrest warrant) or that evidence of a crime or contraband would be found in a search (for a search warrant)”.