A South Florida criminal defense attorney assists a client with his or her criminal defense.  This involves carefully reviewing the charges against him and the circumstances surrounding his or her arrest.  In some cases, a South Florida criminal defense attorney is able to get evidence suppressed, especially in cases involving drug crimes.

A criminal defense attorney files a motion to suppress evidence when it was secured through illegal conduct on the part of police or other government agents.  If this motion is granted, the evidence that was seized can be excluded from being introduced as evidence.  Additionally, other evidence that stemmed from the primary illegality can also be excluded.  A successful motion to suppress can result in the dismissal of charges.

Evidence may be suppressed for a number of reasons.  One common reason to suppress evidence is when law enforcement did not have a warrant and conducted an illegal search or seizure of a person, property or vehicle in violation of a person’s fourth amendment rights.

In addition to actual evidence such as drugs, receipts related to drug transactions, drug paraphernalia and items involved in the drug trade, statements can also be suppressed.  In some cases, a criminal suspect may make an incriminating statement.  Statements may be suppressed in some cases if a suspect makes a statement when his or her Miranda Rights were not read to him or her.  However, law enforcement is not required to provide a recitation of these rights in all cases.  The general rule is that a law enforcement officer must read rights when the defendant is arrested or detained.  Spontaneous statements made to police officers do not require the reading of the rights.