People caught with drugs in their houses sometimes manage to overturn the charges by showing the police did not have a warrant and therefore did not have the right to enter. The police generally need a search warrant to look for evidence, such as drugs, on your premises.
A judge should rule any evidence gained during an illegal search of your home as inadmissible, meaning the prosecution may no longer have enough evidence to get a conviction.
If the police are using a warrant, you should always check it has a judge’s signature and that the details on it, such as your address, are correct. Yet sometimes, the police do not even need a warrant. Here are some of those occasions:
There is evidence in plain view
The police look through your window and see a set of weighing scales, a big bag of white powder and lots of smaller jiffy bags. A judge would likely agree they had a valid reason to enter without your consent or a warrant because there was evidence in plain view.
There are exigent circumstances
If the police believe entering right now is crucial to protect someone or prevent a crime from being committed or evidence being destroyed, they would probably be justified.
If you allow them
Sometimes all an officer has to do is ask the person who opens the door if they can come in. Any kind of positive reply will be taken as permission in the eyes of the law.
The prosecution will do all it can to convince a court that officers met one of these conditions. You’ll need legal help to show they didn’t if you face drug charges.
