Does your consent matter if the police stop is illegal

DOES CONSENT MATTER IF THE STOP IS ILLEGAL? 

I often advise clients never to give consent to police to search their property or person (frisk) following a traffic stop in your car (vehicle search) or while you’re walking down the street (pedestrian stop). Consent, in most situations, will eliminate all of your constitutional rights, and specifically those under the 4th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution as well as Article 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and Article 1, Paragraph 7 to the New Jersey Constitution. 

Consent based on an illegal stop 

If you’re facing criminal charges based on some type of contraband (drugs or guns), and those items were found as a result of a police search, your criminal defense lawyer must evaluate the legality of that search. Even if you gave consent for the search, you should never assume that you don’t have a case for a potential illegal search and seizure issue. As I have stated in the past, a motion to suppress based on an illegal search and seizure is often the defense lawyer’ Talking to police in Pennsylvania and New Jersey Warrantless Protective Sweeps (Search) For Police Safety