Recent Legal Opinions

An individual is required to have standing in order to contest the legality of a warrantless search. To be able to prove standing, the individual has to show a sufficient connection to an event & sufficient harm from the incident to support that person's or parties participation in the case. In matters which involve a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, the determination is typically dependent on whether the individual had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in the area or item that was searched. A person will generally have standing to challenge the legality of a search when that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy & has suffered an injury-in-fact from the search.

There are totally obvious locations wherein a person will no doubt have a reasonable expectation of privacy. There is no doubt that an individual would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his own bedroom or house. Yet, often times there's no definitive line & the courts are required to determine if an individual has standing to challenge a search.

In the matter of Cooper vs. State, the First District Court of Appeal upheld the trial court's ruling that defendant did not have standing to challenge the search of a rental car driven by the defendant, of which defendant was neither the renter nor an authorized driver . The defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy, therefore he lacked a privacy interest, & accordingly did not have standing to challenge the legality of the search because he was not an authorized driver. The district court noted that this factual scenario was a matter of 1st impression in Florida & that the federal circuits were split. The district court agreed with the reasoning given by the Third, Fourth Fifth & Tenth Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal that all ruled that a person driving a rental car, who isn't an authorized driver, has no expectation of privacy and does not have standing to challenge a search of the vehicle.

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