Will your dumb smart phone give you up to the police?

The police want access to your cell phone! And courts across the country are unsure about whether you are protected. What, exactly, is on your cell phone that you hope will remain private from government intrusion? Most everything, I am sure.

 

 

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects us from warrantless searches and seizures by the government.  A search can include reaching into your pocket, collecting a blood sample, or opening the trunk of your car.  What is unclear is whether looking through your phone is a “search.”  If it is a search, the police must first obtain a search warrant (which requires showing probable cause to a neutral judicial magistrate).  If not, the police may freely look through your phone. 

 

Whether something is a “search” depends on whether you had a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the thing “searched.”  As an illustration, if you put something on the dashboard of your car, and park it in a public place, any person walking by can look through your windshield, and see the item.  You have no reasonable expectation of keeping that item “private.”  However, when you put something in your wallet, or in your nightstand, you can reasonably expect that item to remain out of the public view.  Thus, the police must have a search warrant to look in your wallet, but not through the windows of your car. 

When it comes to a cell phone, some courts consider it similar to a “container” which can be opened by the police during an arrest.  Other courts analogize a cell phone to a repository of private conversations, which would require the police to obtain a search warrant to inspect. 

Maryland's appellate courts have not ruled on the issue, but there is precedent suggesting that the contents of a cell phone require a search warrant for police to access.  See, Carpenter v. State, 196 Md.App. 212 (2010) (where police obtained a search warrant to retrieve pictures, text messages, and call logs from defendant’s cell phone).

 

And so, be mindful of your cell phone. It may be smart enough to remember all your esssential information, but too dumb to forget the incriminating stuff.

Hurricane Sandy can strike you twice!

A natural disaster can victimize you two times. Hurricane Sandy has already ripped through your life, tearing at your home and business. But the next steps of rebuilding your life and property can be just as difficult. You must  now negotiate the swirling storm that is your insurance claim process, and the repair and re-construction of your property.  All you want is what was lost.  But will you get it?

The construction industry has been re-energized by the devasation of the storm, and the prospect of billions of dollars in repairs. Will your insurance cover all necessary repairs? Will the contractor demand payments beyond what your insurance will pay? Or maybe you see a chance to upgrade your property but don't know how to expand the contract?

And is your contractor properly licensed by the Maryland Home Improvement Comission? Or, is your contractor often in court, defending against claims of faulty work? The good ones will be very busy, and difficult to schedule. The worst will be ready to take your deposit and then disappear quicker than a sudden change in the weather.

Let experienced counsel guide you through this second storm, and review your insurance policies, your repair contracts, and the performance of your contractors.We've been doing this work for over 25 years, for homeowners and contractors. Getting your lawyer involved, early, can save you the pain of this second storm.

Van Noteriety

Susan Elizabeth Van Note was admitted to the Missouri Bar Association in 1993, and the Kansas Bar Association the year after. She was an experienced estate planner whose website advocated the importance of estate planning. Ms. Van Note implored prospective clients that

[n]ow is the time to make the meaningful plans that will empower you to make a difference in the lives of your loved ones.

Ms. Van Note is currently being charged with the murder of her father, William Van Note, having used a forged power of attorney in order to pull the plug after he survived being shot---by Ms. Van Note. She is charged with murder by legal form.

A fairly succinct summary of the alleged crime is found here.

It’s not hard to see why this all is so interesting, though I’d make the argument this isn’t an ironic case. Irony, in its strict definition, requires not merely a discrepancy between the overt and the covert, but in fact a contradiction. Liz Van Note was an estate planner. It isn’t ironic that she used a forged estate planning document as a murder weapon anymore than it would be ironic for a dentist to use uncomfortable orthodontic equipment to keep their kids quiet at night. It is a perverse and a gross misuse of her legal position, a violation of her responsibilities, yes, but also strangely appropriate. She, like the hypothetical dentist, used the tools at hand.

Liz Van Note isn’t guilty of wholly contradicting the principle theme of her profession, but rather taking those principles to a horrifying extreme. When Liz Van Note plans her estates, she plans the hell out of them.