Have your license, insurance and registration in hand if you are pulled over.

June 14, 2016 |

When you get pulled over make sure you have your license, insurance, and registration in hand in order to avoid the necessity of further unwarranted intrusion by the police into your passenger compartment of your vehicle. This court recognized an exception to the warrantless search by police of a vehicle to uncover proof of ownership.…

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State v. Witt Part II: The Confusion of Exigency

September 26, 2015 |

 Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. A previous blog presented the facts of State v. Witt and explained that up until now Pena-Flores was the governing case in New Jersey when it came to warrantless vehicle searches. Under that case a police officer must meet three requirements to search a vehicle without a…

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The officers were not justified in searching defendant’s auto due to the lack of any exigency and P.C. for such a warrantless motor vehicle stop

March 27, 2015 |

            An officer must smell the odor of the illegal substance when they are lawfully in a position from which they could smell the odor. The smell of burnt marijuana, by a trained and experienced officer, emanating from passenger compartment of a legally stopped motor vehicle creates probable cause to believe that a violation of…

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